The Window to the Soul
by The Sneak
Summary: The World of Darkness is threatening Kari once more, and again T.K. seems to be her only hope. But will he really be able to save her this time?
1. Chapter the First

_Disclaimer: It's mine, all of it. I created Digimon, and Toei Animation, Akiyoshi Hongo, Bandai, and many, many others in both Japan and in the U.S. have absolutely no claim on it at all._

_Not. _

**The Window to the Soul**

The school bell rang, announcing that it was time for the lunch break. Two seniors—a tall, blonde boy and a rather small girl with shoulder-length brown hair—got into the cafeteria line.

"Lunch time at last! I thought our math teacher would go on forever!" The boy, Takeru Takashi--known to most as simply "T.K."--commented.

Kari Kamiya, the girl, smiled as she picked up her tray. "Speaking of going on too long . . . let's eat outside today. Davis was trying to talk me into going somewhere with him this weekend." Davis Motomiya, one of their classmates, and also another member of the Digidestined, had quite a crush on Kari --and he let the world know.

Kari didn't know it, but T.K. was also interested in her, and this news made him slightly concerned. "What did you tell him?" _Please let her have turned him down!_ T.K. thought. Mentally he crossed his fingers.

Kari flashed him a mischievous smile, and T.K. relaxed. "Well, I didn't want to hurt his feelings, so I changed the subject and asked him about his last soccer game."

_"Then_ he wouldn't shut up, would he?" T.K. grinned. Both knew that Davis could talk about himself for hours if given the chance.

Kari sighed tiredly at the memory. "Right."

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

After they had gotten their food, they walked down the hallway, heading towards a side door that was not often used.

Kari looked down at her plate. "Why do they call it 'Mystery Meat'?" she wondered aloud.

"I think that's because it's a mystery as to whether it's really meat!" T.K. deadpanned.

"You know, you're probably right!" Kari giggled.

As they walked on, they passed a bulletin board, and one of the flyers on it caught T.K.'s eye. He paused to look at it, and Kari, noticing he'd stopped, turned and gave him a questioning look.

"You go on ahead, Kari. I'll meet you outside. I need to sign up for something."

"Okay," Kari nodded, then continued down the hall alone.

After he had signed up for the basketball tryouts—he had been on the team since Jr. High, so he was pretty sure he could make it again–T.K. turned his attention to the flyer that had first interested him.

" 'Walk Through the Stars,' the Odaiba High School Homecoming Dance," T.K. read. "To be held two weeks from Friday from 7 to 12 the Odaiba Tokyo Hall. Tickets $10 each." _Hmm,_ he thought._ I wonder if this is where Davis was trying to get Kari to go with him . . ._

Suddenly, T.K. heard a well-known—and usually very _irritating_—voice behind him: "Hey, T.N.!"

_I bet he's looking for Kari again._ T.K. groaned inwardly. _Though I have to admire his tenacity . . ._

"Hi, Davis!" T.K. replied, trying not to sound annoyed. "What's up?"

"Have you seen Kari?" Davis asked, oblivious to T.K.'s discomfort.

_Good grief. __Don't you ever give up?_ T.K. wanted to say, but instead he asked, "Why are you looking for her?"

Davis instantly became defensive, growling a bit as he said, "None of your business, T.R.! So where is she?"

"Why do you think _I _know?" _Like I'm gonna tell you after Kari said she wanted to get away from you for a while._

Davis narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Look," T.K. said finally. "It's lunch time. Where do you _think_ she'd be?"

"Of course, the cafeteria!" Davis exclaimed. "Glad I thought of it. Bye, T.C.!" Davis ran back down the hallway, making a beeline for the cafeteria. With relief, T.K. watched him go, then turned back to the bulletin board. He carefully pulled the flyer down—_I'll put another one up later_—and suddenly remembered that he was supposed to meet Kari outside. _Oh! _he thought. _I'd better hurry. I don't want to keep her waiting._

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

T.K. and Kari relaxed under the shady oak, the biggest tree on the school grounds. They had already finished their lunches and their discussion about their homework, and were now simply enjoying the day and each other's presence.

T.K. sneaked a glance at Kari. She was leaning back against the tree, eyes closed peacefully.

"Hey, Kari?" he said, abruptly breaking the silence.

Kari opened her eyes and smiled at him. "What is it, T.K.?"

T.K. reached into his pocket, pulled out the dance flyer, and handed it to her.

"Have you seen this yet?" he asked quietly.

"I don't think so." She accepted the flyer from him and looked it over. "Looks like fun!" she said brightly, glancing up at him.

"I . . . think that's what Davis was trying to ask you to." Kari looked at him with surprise. "But I was wondering--" T.K. worked up his courage and plunged ahead, "Since Davis hasn't _really_ asked you yet—" He could feel himself starting to blush "—I was wondering if you would like to go with me?" _There,_ he thought. _I said it._ _But—what will she say? _T.K.'s heart leapt as Kari smiled up at him warmly.

"T.K., I'd love to."

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

From their perch in the big oak, Gatomon and Patamon watched T.K. and Kari eat lunch. They could also hear every word the kids said; however, they didn't consider themselves to be eavesdropping, since they took their jobs of protecting their partners very seriously.

"So they're going to a dance! Sounds like fun!" said Patamon, who had tan fur with a buff-colored underbelly. He resembled a cute, jumbo-sized hamster with large bat-wing ears that enabled him to fly. "Can we go?"

"If we sneak in," answered Gatomon. She looked like a cuddly white kitten, except for her long, purple-striped tail, which was nearly twice as long as her body, and her big, yellow-and-red-striped paws, tipped with large, sharp claws. She smiled to herself, then said, "I'm just glad Kari's going with T.K. instead of Davis. I'd much rather hang out with you than with Demiveemon any day."

Patamon blinked, but remained silent.

Gatomon shifted on her limb to get a better view of the kids. "Hey, look at this!" she suddenly exclaimed. "I think they're having a 'moment'!"

"Really?" Patamon said, looking down. "A moment of what?"

"I don't know. That's just what Tai always says when we're watching those mushy romance movies on TV."

"Oh."

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

After school, the courtyard was full of high schoolers, most of whom were talking about the dance. T.K. and Kari managed to find each other in the big crowd, so they talked quietly while they waited for the other Digidestined to find them.

"My Mom said that I needed to come straight home today, but she didn't say why." Disappointment filled T.K.'s voice; he scuffed his foot in the dirt as he spoke. "I don't think I can go to the Digital World with you guys today."

Kari picked up on T.K.'s dejection right away. "That's okay," she said comfortingly. "I think I'll go home now, too. Tai's staying at the house with me while my parents are visiting my grandma in Kyoto for a couple days." She giggled. "He likes me to stay close to home 'while he's responsible for me.' "

"Yeah," T.K. chuckled. " Big brothers are weird like that, aren't they? But since we're going the same way—" T.K. bowed formally "—May I escort you home, miss?"

"T.K.!" Kari laughed, but she took his offered arm, and they started off down the street together.

They hadn't gone far when they heard a voice yelling behind them: "Hey! Kari!" Surprised, they turned, letting go of each other's hands, and saw Davis running after them. He stopped in front of them and, ignoring T.K., Davis blurted, "Kari, I wanted to ask you to go with me to the Homecoming Dance in two weeks."

Kari pulled out the flyer T.K. had given her and held it up. "You mean this dance?"

"Yeah, that's the one!" Davis said excitedly. "You'll go with me right?"

"Sorry, Davis," Kari turned and smiled up at T.K., who smiled back warmly. "I'm already going with T.K."

"What?" Davis sounded confused. "But—"

Just then Yolei spotted them and hurried over. She had graduated the year before, but she sometimes worked as the computer teacher's aide, and still went to the Digital World with them from time to time. "Hi, guys!" she exclaimed. "What's up?"

"But—" Davis said again.

"Kari and I can't go to the Digital World today. We've gotta go home, parents' orders!" T.K. explained, ignoring Davis.

"But—"

"That's okay. Cody can't go either," Yolei told them. "Something about a science project and lots of homework. I have to go home, too, to work to pay for all the food I've still got on my 'tab,' so I guess no one's going today."

"But—"

"Well, we'll see you guys tomorrow!" T.K. said.

"Bye!" Kari chimed in, and they ran off down the street together.

"But . . ." Davis's protests trailed off. He sighed with frustration.

Yolei looked at him curiously. "What's wrong, Davis?" she asked.

"Nuthin'," he replied sulkily.

"Hey, I have an idea!" Yolei said brightly. "Since you aren't doing anything this afternoon and you still haven't repaid me for all the food Demiveemon's eaten, why don't you come help me work?"

Davis's jaw dropped. "Huh?!"

Yolei laughed to herself, then grabbed Davis's arm and pulled him along after her. "I'm glad I thought of this! I'll call your parents to make sure it's okay, but you need to do it even if they don't like it 'cause you owe me big for all the _food_!"

"But Yolei—" Davis began, then he groaned. _Aw, man!_ he thought. _Double burn! This day just can't get any worse!_

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

A loud _crash_ resounded through the store. _I take it back. It just got worse._

Davis, wearing a frilly yellow apron, tiredly picked up his mop and bucket and headed towards the source of the sound. ("Sorry, Davis," Yolei had said. "That's our only spare apron, and you'll ruin your clothes if you don't wear one!") He growled to himself. Yolei had _not_ sounded sorry at all. Some girls were so annoying . . .

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

He had finally managed to clean up all the syrup and the remains of the broken glass bottles when Yolei appeared, seemingly from out of nowhere. "I guess you can go after you finish with that. Thanks for helping out, Davis!"

Davis snorted. "You're not welcome, but I've been wanting to ask you something."

"Ask me something? Davis, I've already got a date for Friday night."

"That's _NOT _what I was going to ask you!" Davis suddenly seemed to sag. "It's about Kari," he mumbled.

"_Oooh_, I see where this is going!" Yolei's voice oozed with sweetness.

Davis ignored her teasing. "Well, I was gonna ask her to this dance, but T.K. asked her first!"

"So?"

_"So,_ I don't get it." Davis slumped even more. "Why would she go with T.K. instead of me?"

"Because T.K. is kind, polite, and practically her best friend, and _you_ are obnoxious, rude, and conceited!"

Davis blinked, confusion clearly written across his face. "What are you saying?"

Yolei groaned loudly, but then frustratedly explained, "Look, T.K. asked her first, didn't he?"

Davis became defensive. "Well, I was trying to, but I kept getting sidetracked . . ."

"So he asked her first—"

"Yeah, I guess . . ."

" She said yes—"

"Uh-huh."

"And this means . . . what?" Yolei looked at him pointedly, waiting for his reply.

"Um . . . I have to find a way to split them up?"

_"No, you doofus!"_ Yolei practically shouted at him. "It means you should leave them alone and find yourself another date!"

Before Davis could reply, another loud _crash_ and the tinkle of breaking glass filled the air.

"Oh, not again!" Yolei groaned, rubbing her forehead with a hand. "Davis, do you think you could—"

Before she could finish her sentence, a frilly yellow apron smacked her square in the face, covering her head. She tore it off to see Davis running out of the store in a full, headlong sprint. "_Hey,_ what the— Davis, wait!"

"Bye, Yolei!" he called over his shoulder as he sped out the door, ignoring Yolei's shouts.

_"Davis Motomiya, just you wait till I get my hands on you!"_

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

At nearly the same time, T.K. had reached his apartment. He and Kari had gone for a walk before he took her home; he'd enjoyed it, even though it had been a shorter walk than he would have liked: they both knew that they had to get back to their apartments (and their neurotic older brothers).

They had gone 'window shopping,'--it had actually been his idea, which surprised Kari, but T.K. really kind of liked shopping; his mom had taken him with her a lot when he was younger, so he was used to it. Besides, he would do just about anything as long as it meant he could spend more time with Kari.

In one of the windows they had passed, Kari had admired a very pretty, heart-shaped silver locket. In the middle of the finely inscribed stars and flowers was a blank space for a short message, or a name. She had first seen it while T.K. was preoccupied with a TV/VCR/DVD combo player in a nearby window, and she had been studying it so closely that she didn't notice that he had come up behind her until he spoke:

"Which one are you looking at?"

She had blushed deeply, not wanting him to think she expected him to buy something for her.

"The—the silver heart locket. It's pretty, but . . . well, you may think this sounds crazy, but there's something--something _drawing_ about it. I don't know how to explain it . . ."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I—I feel it, too."

They were silent for a moment, both looking at the strangely attractive necklace.

"That's weird!" T.K. had finally said, shaking himself, as if to rid himself of the uncanny feeling.

"Yes, it is," Kari mused, then she'd suddenly turned and looked up at him. "Ready to go home?"

"Yeah. But first, let's stop at the ice cream shop. I'll buy."

"It's a deal," Kari had agreed with a smile.

And now T.K. sighed happily to himself as he unlocked his apartment door and stepped inside, memories of the last hour running through his head.

"Mom, I'm home!" he yelled as he took off his shoes and replaced them with his comfy slippers. There was no reply. He looked into the neat living room, then the clean, spotless kitchen.

No one.

"Mom?" He poked his head into her office, but only the computer greeted him. Then he noticed the message scrolling across the screen:

_Takeru:_

_I'm sorry that I forgot to tell you this morning, but I'm going to France to follow up on a story. Just in case, I—_

"Hey, Squirt." The voice came from the hallway behind him. Startled, T.K. spun around.

Matt was standing behind him, leaning against the doorframe.

"Matt! What are you doing here?" T.K. asked, looking back over his shoulder at the

computer's screen.

The rest of the message read:

_Just in case, I asked Matt to stay with you while I'm gone. Be good and take care of yourself._

_Love,_

_Mom_

"Oh. That would explain it."

Matt blinked in surprise. "You mean she didn't _tell_ you she'd be gone?"

"This is the first I've heard of it."

"Oh well," Matt sighed. "So much for getting responsible with age." He shook his head. "Anyway, Dad's gone on a business trip now, too, so I'm more than happy to stay here with you."

"Cool," T.K. said, suddenly grinning at Matt. "So what's for supper, 'Mom'?"

"Very funny."

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

T.K. was sitting on the couch, watching TV with Patamon when the telephone rang.

"I'll get it," Matt said, closing the refrigerator door. He picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Is this T.K.?" asked a cold, raspy voice on the other end of the line.

Matt shivered; the voice reminded him of nails scraping down a chalkboard.

"No, this is Matt." _This had better be a joke._

"Is T.K. there?"

_Whoever is doing this has a really sick sense of humor._ Matt twisted around to look towards the living room. "Maybe. Who wants to know?"

Whoever it was ignored his question, either knowing or else assuming that T.K. was indeed there with Matt. "Take a message. Ask him if he's _sure_ he wants to go to that dance. It could be . . . _dangerous_ if he does!"

"Who is this?" Matt demanded angrily, but the voice's only reply was harsh, cold laughter.

There was a sharp _click_, and the phone went dead in his hand.

For a moment Matt could only stand there in shock, still holding the phone to his ear; when he did return the phone to its cradle, his hand was not steady. He slowly walked into the living room and stood behind the couch, looking down at his little brother's tousled blonde hair, the exact same shade as his own.

"T.K. . . . " he murmured numbly.

T.K. looked up on hearing his name, giving Matt a bright smile . . . then he noticed his brother's pale face and worried eyes. "What is it?" he asked quietly. "What's wrong, Matt?"

Matt's voice sounded unsure. "I—I think you just got a threatening phone call."

"_What_?!" T.K. and Patamon exclaimed together.

"Someone just called and said that you might get hurt if you go to that dance in a couple weeks." Now Matt sounded angry, and a little scared.

"Isn't your band playing for the dance?"

"For part of the night," Matt confirmed as he sat down next to T.K. He looked over at his little brother with concern. "Maybe you shouldn't go."

"But Matt—" T.K. felt his face warming "—I . . . have a date."

Matt smiled slyly at his little brother. "Are you taking who I think you are?"

"Well—I asked Kari to go with me," T.K. confirmed, his face still flushed.

"And?"

"She said she'd love to!"

"I _knew_ it!" Matt exclaimed, laughing. "I _knew_ you two would end up as a couple someday!" He gave T.K. a roguish wink. "My little bro is pretty slick with the ladies! Way to go, squirt!"

T.K. just stared at Matt, his eyes the size of silver dollars, and approaching that of small dinner plates. _"Huh?!"_

Patamon looked up at T.K, his big turquoise eyes questioning. "T.K., what's he talking about?"

T.K. blushed even more furiously than before. "Matt, we're just friends!" he protested, ignoring Patamon's question.

"Sure, I've heard _that_ one before!"

_"Matt!"_

"Just friends, huh? By your choice, or hers?"

"I . . . I don't know."

"Well, do _you_ want to be more than friends?"

"Matt, we're only in high school. But . . . I _would_ like to get to know her even better."

Matt smiled at the tone of T.K.'s voice. "You two are already really close; in fact, I think I'd say you're best friends." T.K. gave Matt a surprised look. "It's true, bro, and it's really cool. I mean, I didn't find _my_ girlfriend until just a few months ago."

"I bet it's hard to have a long distance relationship, but even though she lives in America, you and Becky get to see each other pretty often because of the Digital Portals."

"Right," Matt nodded. "She's even coming to that dance to play in my band. But it's still hard: how would we ever explain how she got here to Dad and Mom? They'd freak! I'm glad they'll still be gone, or we'd have some explaining to do!" Suddenly Matt stood. "I'm gonna call Tai. I want his opinion on that phone call." He headed for the kitchen. "Meanwhile, don't worry too much about this, T.K. It's probably nothing, just someone's idea of a practical joke."

"Or maybe it's a telemarketer gone bad!"

"That too," Matt agreed, chuckling, but his eyes hardened as he reached for the phone. _If this is someone's idea of a joke, it's not very funny._

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤


	2. Chapter the Second

The phone rang in the Kamiya apartment.

Tai picked it up.  "Hello?  Yeah . . . uh-huh . . . okay, whatever.  Bye."  He set the phone down.  "Huh," he said to himself thoughtfully.

He wandered into the kitchen, where he found Kari washing dishes.  Gatomon sat on the counter beside her, drinking a glass of milk.  "Hey, Kari."

Kari looked up and flashed a bright smile at her older brother.  "Hi, Tai.  How were your classes today?"

"Oh, they were okay.  It was a typical college day."  He leaned against the wall.  "Hey. I got a call from Davis a few minutes ago, and he said to ask you if you'd changed your mind.  What was he talking about?"

Gatomon giggled

"Oh," Kari blushed slightly, and shot Gatomon a quick "be-quiet" look.  "Uh . . . "  The pink in her cheeks subsided, and she began washing again.  "Davis wanted me to go with him to a dance," she said matter-of-factly.

"So?"

Kari blushed again, suddenly seeming to find a very dirty spot on a plate, which she scrubbed at furiously.  "Well, T.K. had already asked me to go with him."

Tai smiled knowingly.  "That's cool," he said quietly, and after a slight pause he said, "T.K.'s a great guy, isn't he?"

Kari, her cheeks still flushed, avoided her brother's eyes.  "Mm-hmm," she murmured quietly, but Tai heard the deep conviction in her assent.

"Well," Tai announced, "When I see Sora tomorrow, the first thing I'm gonna do is go down on my knees and beg her to go to the dance with me!"

Kari smiled.  "Good luck!"

"He'll need it!" Gatomon teased, and both giggled at the look of feigned injury on Tai's face.

Just then the phone rang again.

"I'll get it," Tai said, picking up the phone.  "H'lo?"

"Hey, Tai."

Tai easily recognized his best friend's voice.  "Hey, Matt.  What's up?"

Matt seemed to hesitate for a second, then he said in a low voice, "T.K. got a threatening phone call a few minutes ago."

_"What?!"_

Kari gave a little gasp at Tai's exclamation, almost dropping the glass she was drying, 

and looked quickly over at her brother; Gatomon's blue eyes narrowed minutely, and she studied Tai closely.

"Are you sure?" Tai asked, and Kari heard a trace of anger in his voice.

"Yes."  Matt tiredly ran a hand through his tousled blonde hair.  "I was given the message.  Whoever it was said that if T.K. went to the dance, he might get hurt!"

"What are you gonna do?"

"I don't _know what to do!  Both my parents are out of town--out of the _country_, actually--and I'm staying at Mom's with T.K.  I'm just glad that I answered the phone instead of him!"_

"Yeah, me, too," Tai agreed.  "So what are you thinking?"

Matt was quiet for a long time, apparently thinking everything over again. "Maybe T.K. shouldn't go," he said finally, an odd note of reluctance in his voice. "Thing is, my band is part of the entertainment at the dance, so I'd have to leave him at home alone, which I'm _definitely_ not gonna do.  I think that I'll probably let him go, but keep an eye on him."

"Sounds like a plan.  I'll look out for him for you while your band plays."

"Thanks, I was hoping you would."  Matt's tone became mischievous.  "Speaking of the dance, do you know who my brother's going with?"

Tai chuckled as he watched Kari finish the dishes, then curl up on the couch and turn on the television.  "_My_ sister!  Yeah, Davis called a few minutes ago, asking her if she'd changed her mind and wanted to go with him instead!  Like she'd ever pick Davis over T.K.!"

"I bet before we know it we'll be brothers-in-law!" Matt snickered.

"I wouldn't bet against you!"  Both laughed for a while about the practical jokes they could play at the wedding, earning them strange looks from their siblings, which only served to make them laugh harder.

"Ahh . . ." Matt finally said when he could breathe again.  "Thanks, Tai . . . for everything.  I'll see you tomorrow."

"Later," Tai agreed and hung up.  Slowly his smile faded as he thought less about the end of their conversation and more about the beginning.

"What is it, Tai?" Kari asked, noting his pensive mood.  She sat up and turned off the TV.  "Is Matt all right?"

"Yeah, he's fine."  Tai met Kari's eyes seriously.  His voice was low as he continued, "But T.K. got a threatening phone call."

"What do you mean?"  Her voice was steady, but her eyes clearly showed her concern for her friend.

"Apparently someone called and said that if T.K. went to the dance he might get hurt."  Kari looked slightly ill.  "Matt answered the phone, though, so it could have been worse, I guess."

Kari looked up at Tai, trust reflecting in her brown eyes.  Her brother would have an answer to this--he always knew what to do in these sorts of situations.  "What should we do?"

"What _can we do?  We'll just have to be extra careful, T.K. especially."_

"Maybe we shouldn't go," Kari murmured.  _I don't want T.K. to get hurt!_

"We can't let ourselves be intimidated that easily!"  Tai sounded determined.  "Matt and I will just keep an eye on T.K. at the dance, and you'll be right there with him, too.  He'll be fine."  _I hope._

Kari nodded as she rose from the couch.  "Okay."  Tai's reasoning seemed to have reassured her.  She paused in the doorway to her room and looked back at her brother.  " 'Night, Tai."

" 'Night, Kari."

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~

Kari sat down on her bed and gazed out the window up at the night sky.  _I hope Tai's right,_ she thought, closing her eyes and hugging her legs tightly to her chest.  She felt the bed shake slightly and opened her eyes to see Gatomon sitting beside her.

"What's wrong, Kari?" the Digimon asked curiously.

Kari looked back out at the sky.  "I—I guess I'm just a little worried about T.K.."

"Oh?" Gatomon blinked her wide, blue eyes.

"I don't want him to get hurt, but I know he'll go to that dance anyway because he wants me to have fun."

"I wouldn't worry about T.K. too much--he can take care of himself.  He's proven that lots of times."  Gatomon shrugged.  "Besides, he has Patamon to protect him.  We'll both be watching out for you."

With a grateful smile, Kari pulled Gatomon into her arms, cuddling her warm, furry body gently.  "Thanks, Gatomon."

_Gatomon and Tai are probably right, she thought as she snuggled down under her covers.  __And T.K. can take care of himself._

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~

Back at the Takashi apartment, the phone rang again.

"Hey Matt, will you get that?"

There was no reply, and the phone continued to ring.

"Oh, _man!  Only when I'm in the shower!"_

T.K., still dripping, scrambled to answer the phone.  _It could be Kari . . . The phone stopped ringing the instant his wet hand touched it.  "Great," he muttered, piqued.  Eyes narrowed in annoyance, he slowly turned to look down the hall towards the kitchen and living room.  "Now, where's Matt?"_

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~

In the living room, Matt was sprawled out on the couch, fast asleep and snoring loudly.

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~

"What's that?"  T.K. sniffed at the air.  "It smells like something's burning!"  Still clad in only a towel, he rushed to the kitchen to find a dark cloud of smoke seeping into the air from around the edge of the oven door.  "Yikes!"  He jerked open the door and was hit squarely in the face by the thick cloud of smog that the oven belched forth; the smoke got into his eyes, making them water.  Coughing and choking, he stumbled blindly backwards into the sink.  His elbow banged into one of the handles--the one they'd been meaning to have fixed for several weeks--and the knob popped off, spraying water over the whole kitchen.  _"Auuggghhhh!"_  T.K., still half-blinded by the smoke, got a face full of water and sprawled backwards on the slippery floor.

_"MATT!"_

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~

Back on the couch, Matt sneezed in his sleep, moaned, then rolled over and began to snore again.

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~

The fine, almost misty spray of water was helping the smoke to clear.  T.K. rubbed at his burning eyes, then looked around wildly.  "Oh, _no!  The kitchen'll flood!"  He scrambled to his feet, struggling to walk without falling on the slick floor.  He finally reached the sink again, and, closing his eyes, he felt for the handle he'd dislodged, which was somewhere inside the blinding spray; he felt a wave of relief as his fingers closed around it.  Coughing and sputtering, he fought to screw the handle back into its place, and eventually succeeded, though not before getting himself completely soaked._

The sopping wet towel still wrapped around his waist, T.K. sunk to his knees in front of the sink, one hand still on the handle, his chin resting on the other, grasping the counter's edge.  He let out a long sigh of relief and closed his aching, itching eyes.

A slight noise alerted T.K. to the fact that someone was coming.  He opened his eyes to see Matt standing in the doorway.  His older brother yawned and stretched, then blinked in surprise as he took in the state of the kitchen:

The oven was open and steaming;

The walls and counter were drenched;

The floor was fairly swimming;

And T.K. was slumped against the sink in a towel.

"What happened here?" Matt asked as he turned off the oven.  "It looks like a battle field!"  He shook his head disapprovingly.  "T.K., you've _got to be able to find easier ways to have fun."_

_"F-f-fun . . . ?"_

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~


	3. Chapter the Third

            _The weekend passed quickly, and the week itself seemed to pass even quicker; soon there were only two weeks left until the dance . . ._

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~

"So as you can see," the teacher droned, "Rolle's Theorem is applicable not only in problem number 30, but also in problems 31 and 32."

T.K. stared down at his desk.  He wasn't really paying attention to the lesson, even though he knew he should: his Calculus grades had been going down lately, ever since about a week ago . . .

_What's wrong with me? he wondered.  _That phone call must have shaken me up worse than I thought._  He sighed and ran his fingers tiredly through his hair._

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~

Kari glanced over at T.K. worriedly.  _He doesn't look like he slept much last night.  Today's Friday; the dance is in exactly two weeks.  What should we do?_

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~

T.K. caught Kari looking at him out of the corner of his eye.  _She's watching me.  She's worried.  She knows I didn't sleep well last night.  I—I'll talk to her later.  Right now I need to pay attention!_

"Everything I just said will be on your test next week, which will be over chapters 20-35," the teacher stated in his regular monotone.

T.K. sighed to himself as he looked at all the meaningless squiggles on the board; he didn't even half understand most of it.  _Guess I'll have to get the notes from Kari, too._

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~

"T.K., are you all right?"

It was the lunch hour, and T.K. and Kari were once again sitting together under their tree.

T.K. looked up and met Kari's worried gaze with what he hoped was a comforting smile.  "Yeah," he said tiredly, "I just didn't sleep too well last night.  I was just wondering who would want to intimidate me with that phone call, and more importantly _why?_  What good could someone else get out of scaring me off?"

"Did you come up with anything?"

T.K. started to shake his head, but before he could reply further a voice from behind them broke in: "We have a guess."

Turning, both T.K. and Kari were surprised to see Matt and Tai making their way towards them.

"Matt?  Tai?  What are you doing here?"

"We decided that we needed to meet," Tai said, domineering as always.  "Just the four of us, so we can discuss our plan of action."

T.K. blinked.  "Oh."

"Well, we thought about all the people who might have a reason to be angry with T.K., and we found one person who stood out above all the rest."

"Who?"  T.K. and Kari asked together.

"Davis."

_"What?!" T.K. and Kari exclaimed, once again simultaneously._

Kari looked over at Tai.  "Why would Davis want to do something like that?"

T.K. turned to Matt.  "Davis may be stubborn, but I don't think he'd be that downright _mean!"_

"Are you _sure it's Davis, Tai?" Kari asked.  She never liked to think badly of anyone, not even someone as annoying and overbearing as Davis._

"No," Tai admitted.  "We're not sure at all.  So far we have no proof."

"But he's _still number one on our list!" Matt cut in._

"Number one on what list?" came an annoying voice from the school door behind them.  They whirled to see Davis standing there.  He gave them his normal, clueless grin and a thumbs-up.  "I bet it's the 'coolest guys' list, right?"

"Guess again," Tai said, not bothering to lower his voice.

"Hey," Davis continued, ignoring Tai's comment and turning to Kari.  "Did you get my phone message?  I—"

Everyone was surprised by Matt's instantaneous reaction, not least of all Davis; those words were barely out of his mouth when Matt reached him.  Grabbing him by his shirt front, Matt hoisted the unfortunate highschooler up into the air, slammed him back against the school building, and held him there.  "Phone message?" Matt gritted from between clenched teeth.  "You wouldn't have happened to call _T.K._ too, now, would you?"

"Hey, easy on the jacket!  It's—huh?"  Davis blinked, ceasing his protest and just looking down at Matt in obvious confusion.  "I just called Kari to see if she'd changed her mind about—" he looked quickly away "—something."

Matt slammed him against the wall again, a little harder this time.  "What _sort_ of something?" he growled.

As much as he liked seeing Davis 'roughed up a little' ("It's good for him to realize he's not the toughest guy out there," he was often heard to say), Tai decided that it was time to intercede.

"Hey Matt, he's telling the truth.  He _did call Kari the other day, but he wasn't threatening at all.  Remember, I told you about it--he asked if Kari'd changed her mind about going to the dance with T.K."  He gave a sudden little snicker.  "She hadn't, of course—"_

"But Tai's right," Kari cut in, giving Tai a warning look.  She turned back to Matt.  "Davis was just being himself--persistent."

"Yeah, that's me!" Davis agreed, eager to assuage any trouble he'd caused, or that people thought he'd caused.  "I'm persistently persistent!"  Something suddenly seemed to dawn on him.  "Hey, what happened to make you so uptight, Matt?"

Tai opened his mouth, about to say 'nothing' and end it there, when T.K. blurted, "I got a threatening phone call about a week ago—"

_"Huh?!"_

"—And we were trying to figure out who did it," Tai picked up.  He shrugged.  "Since _you_ wanted to go to the dance with Kari, and the phone call was trying to scare T.K. away from going to that dance, you fell under suspicion.  You were a suspect with a motive."

"You're starting to sound like Izzy," Davis muttered, trying to work through what the older boy had said.  "So you're saying," he said at last, "That you think _I_ did it?!"

"No, we're just saying that we considered it a possibility—"

"Hey, I may pull some dumb stunts, but I don't try to _hurt _anybody!"

"Hmmph," Matt said, obviously not convinced.

"Oh . . . and, ah, Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you put me down now?"

All five kids heard the school bell ringing out the hour.  Without relaxing his grip on the younger boy's shirt, Matt slowly let Davis slide down the wall.

"Ahem, well, we have to go," T.K. said, breaking the awkward moment.

"Bye!" Kari said, and they hurried off together.

After receiving a last hard look from Matt, Davis quickly followed, rubbing his neck and still looking rather bewildered.

Tai silently watched them go, then turned to Matt.  "You shouldn't have done that, you know," he said quietly.

"Yeah, I know."  Matt didn't look at him.  "But . . . it's just that my Mom and Dad are counting on me to take care of T.K. while they're both out of the country, and I want them to know they can trust me.  If anything happened to T.K., I don't know what I'd do . . ."

"Nothing's _gonna_ happen to him, Matt!"

Matt didn't reply for a moment, then muttered, "I still think it could be Davis . . ."

"But we don't have any proof, Matt," Tai said patiently.  "We're just gonna have to give Davis the benefit of the doubt."

The blonde musician sighed.  "I guess you're right."  He gave Tai a small, wry smile.  "I'm just not thinking completely straight."

"You're under at lot of pressure right now.  I understand.  Now c'mon!  We gotta go or we'll be late for class!"

"Right, let's go."

"You know, I don't think you've ever really forgiven Davis for June."

"What?"

"Remember?  She made you go on that date with her years ago, and you couldn't object—if you did, Davis' parents would have found out about the Digiport."  Tai smiled, lacing his fingers together behind his head.  "I don't think you've ever forgiven Davis for making you do that."

"You're right," Matt said, blue eyes narrowing into icy slits.  "I haven't."

~ ¤  *  ¤   -   ¤  *  ¤ ~


	4. Chapter the Fourth

That night, Kari had trouble falling asleep; her thoughts just kept chasing each other round and round inside her head until she felt she would scream.

_What are we gonna do?_ she kept wondering. _I don't think we should go—it's just not worth it. T.K. could really be in danger. _She glanced over at her clock just as the glowing green digits changed from 11:54 to 11:55. _I'll tell him tomorrow, I guess--it's too late to call him now._

With a sigh she rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes. Just before she dropped off, a sleepy thought drifted across her mind:

_I hope Tai and Matt find whoever is responsible for this. Whoever it is will be in big trouble if they do._

Little did she know that neither Tai nor Matt would find their opponent: she herself would be the first to encounter their enemy, and when she did, there _would_ be 'big trouble' . . .

With a sigh, Kari slipped into a deep sleep.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

In her dreams, Kari found herself at the Homecoming Dance. She and T.K. were slow-dancing, twirling gracefully across the floor. _What is this?_ Kari wondered as they danced. _Is this some kind of vision, a view of the future?_ She forced herself to relax and smiled at T.K., who was looking very handsome in a tan sports jacket and slacks. _If this is how it's going to be, maybe it won't be so bad . . ._ She suddenly noticed that they'd stopped dancing. T.K. was looking down at her with a _new_ sort of light in his eyes. He pulled her gently closer, looking deeply into her eyes, and—

Without warning the ground lurched beneath them, the violent jerk throwing them to the floor. The lights began flickering, and Kari heard a sharp _cracking_ noise; looking up she saw that the roof-dome was splitting. The building continued to shake violently, and bits of plaster--some small and others of considerable size--rained down on and around them as the ceiling crumbled like stale bread.

"What's happening?" she yelled at T.K., trying not to panic.

"I don't know! Maybe it's an earthquake!"

It was _not_ an earthquake.

A huge dark hand suddenly thrust itself through the ceiling, then ripped itself back out, tearing a gaping hole and exposing a jagged slash of the cold, starry night sky. As the dust settled, Kari, coughing hard, pushed herself upright and looked up at the rent in the once-smooth dome . . . and then wished she hadn't. Through the fissure in the roof, she could see a hulking, dusky figure. She couldn't make out the exact shape of the monster; all she knew was that it was _huge,_ towering over the Odaiba Tokyo Hall. The shadowy creature seemed to meld with the night sky, making it indistinct, but one thing that was _very_ clear was a pair of slanted, glowing red eyes . . . eyes that were focused solely on Kari. Her mouth opened in a soundless scream, her eyes going wide, and she glanced around, desperately searching for T.K.

She suddenly saw him lying a few feet away, half covered with dust and rubble; his eyes were closed, and he appeared to be unconscious.

"T.K.!" Kari tried to get to her feet, but her left ankle couldn't support her weight, though whether it was broken or merely sprained she couldn't tell. Determined to reach her friend one way or another, she began to scramble through the rubble on hands and knees. The going was slow, and much of the debris was sharp, shards of glass from the lights mixed with the shattered concrete and steel supports.

Her heart lurched as _IT _suddenly spoke: "Child of Light, come with us!"

Kari shivered, trying to shake off the chill that those words cast over her, and kept crawling towards T.K.'s motionless form, ignoring the fact that her hands and legs were cut and bleeding.

"Child of Light," the voice hissed again, "Come with us!"

_"No!"_ Ignoring her pain, Kari lurched to her feet. _"No,_ I won't go with you!"

The jet-black figure gave a cold laugh, and Kari shuddered again. "You _will_ come," it said, suddenly shooting out an inky tentacle. "One way or another!"

Kari realized just a second too late what was about to happen: the tentacle wrapped itself around T.K., lifting his limp body up and out of the ruined building. She lunged at him vainly, letting out a piercing cry:

_"T.K.! No!"_

The murky _thing_ laughed again, holding its lifeless prize high. "You will come," it repeated, "Or your little friend will be in _deep _trouble."

The monster's figure, already indistinct, began to waver, taking the captive boy with it.

"T.K.!"

His eyes fluttered, then snapped open as he realized, at least partially, what was happening. "Help!" he cried, trying to work his way out of the dark creature's grasp. He noticed Kari standing there, and cast her a desperate, pleading glance. "Kari! Run away! Get out of here while you still can!"

Kari's feet felt rooted to the floor. She glanced quickly around her at the building full of screaming, running people, desperately searching for Gatomon, Patamon, Tai, Matt, or even Davis, someone, _anyone_ who could help. On impulse she pulled out her D-3, trying to locate her partner.

The dark monstrosity gave a loud cackle, and Kari glanced up just in time to see it simply fade away into a cloud of black mist. Soon that dissipated as well, leaving no trace of the monster . . . or of T.K.

Kari found herself standing alone amidst the wreckage, staring up at the dark, cold night sky. Tears streaming down her face, she called his name helplessly:

_"T.K.!"_

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

Kari sat up straight in bed, her heart beating wildly. Her breath came in ragged gasps, her body was drenched in a cold sweat. Gatomon was not on the bed beside her, and fear clutched at her heart for a moment before she remembered: Gatomon had been helping Tai with a project of some sort and was going to stay in the extra bed in Tai's room.

Kari closed her eyes again and put a hand to her chest, breathing deeply and forcing herself to calm down. _I need to talk to Tai,_ she decided, glancing over at her clock. Now the numbers read 5:30--not that long until it would be time to get up.

Still shaking, she climbed out of bed and slipped quietly over to Tai's room. She peeked through the half-closed door and sure enough, there was Gatomon, curled up in the top bunk; Tai was sprawled, snoring, on the bottom. Kari smiled at how peaceful they looked as they dreamed . . . then a shadow passed over her face as she remembered her own dream.

"Tai." Crossing the room, she gently shook her big brother's shoulder.

Tai continued to snore.

"Tai," she tried again.

More snoring.

"Kari?" Gatomon asked sleepily, rubbing an eye with her paw. "What's going on? Is something wrong?"

Kari smiled gently at the sleepy feline. "Hi there. I was trying to get Tai up, but it's not working." To prove her point she shook him hard once more, with much the same result as before--none, that is.

"Oh!" Gatomon was fully awake now. "Wait here," she told Kari as she slid from the bed and scampered out of the room. She padded quietly into Kari's room and dug into a desk drawer, apparently looking for something. Finding it, she returned swiftly to Kari's side. "Here, Kari. This'll wake him!"

Kari smiled impishly as she caught the object the digimon tossed to her. "Last chance, Tai, before I get you up Gatomon's way!"

Tai just snored even louder.

Kari took a deep breath, raised the object to her lips . . . and blew. The silver whistle—the one Kari had given Gatomon years before, the same one Kari had once used to wake Tai up with all the time—let out a clear, piercing note, and finally Tai jerked awake.

"Huh? Wassamatter?" he mumbled, somehow looking both half asleep and unusually alert at the same moment.

Kari giggled softly. "You wouldn't wake up, that was the matter!" With a moan, Tai rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head. "Tai . . . I need to talk to you."

Something in her voice told Tai that this was important. He rolled back over and slowly sat up, carefully meeting her eyes. "Are you all right?" he asked, the note of concern obvious in his voice. One look at her pale face answered his question. "What's wrong, sis?" he asked, motioning for her to sit down on the end of his bed.

She took her time settling herself on the foot of the bed, using the extra time to take a few deep breaths and figure out exactly what it was she wanted to say. Tai listened carefully as she told him about her dream, every now and then breaking in to ask a question or get clarification on a certain point. When she was finished they sat in silence for a while, side by side in the darkness, both lost in thought. Finally Tai sighed deeply and ran a hand through his tousled brown hair. "I don't know what to tell you . . ."

"What do you think it means?" she asked anxiously.

"I—I just don't know." Something seemed to suddenly dawn on Tai, and he looked over at Kari sharply. "You know . . . this isn't the only time you've had a dream like that."

Kari's eyes widened, and she swallowed hard, remembering.

"Well, we'll just do now what we did then."

Kari looked uncertain. "What's that, Tai?"

Tai's brown eyes narrowed sharply. "We'll fight it." _No one's gonna lay a finger on my little sister without going through me first._

But even as those confident, protective thoughts ran through her brother's head, Kari's doubts began to rise through one strong, nagging thought of her own:

_. . . But how do you fight a dream?_

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤


	5. Chapter the Fifth

_A/N: Sorries, for some reason the computer screwed up my formatting the first time this was uploaded...smooshed all the paragraphs together. --;; Here it is again, correctly this time._

Saturday came and went, and Sunday was also passing uneventfully when Tai's cell phone rang. Shifting in his seat on the couch where he was watching TV with Kari, he dug his cell phone out of his pocket. "Hello?"

"Tai, it's Matt."

"Oh, good! I wanted to ask you for some help on my physics assignment. This professor—"

"Tai, I need to meet with you. Now."

Tai heard the grim note in Matt's voice, and he knew then that something was wrong. "Uh, sure. Come on over."

"Great. See you in a few minutes."

_Bleep._ Tai tapped his chin thoughtfully with the phone's antenna. He knew that a cell phone was not a place to discuss delicate matters, and Matt had sounded tense enough for him to figure that whatever had happened was pretty touchy. If Matt wouldn't talk about it on the phone . . . His eyes narrowed slightly in thought. _I wonder . . ._

"Who was it, Tai?"

He quickly turned his head to look over at Kari. "It was Matt. He's coming over here for a while."

"Oh," was all his sister said aloud, but her eyes spoke volumes more. She abruptly rose from her seat on the couch. "I think I'll go start supper." _Maybe it will get my mind off the problems at hand._

About ten minutes later there was a quiet rap on the door. Gatomon looked out from the kitchen as Tai opened the door a crack and had a quick, whispered conversation with Matt. After listening for a moment, she scampered off to Tai's room. After their hushed exchange of words, Matt hurried off. Tai closed the door after him, a pensive look on his face; sitting down at the table, he drummed his fingers apprehensively until Kari came in with their bowls of soup. Noting his troubled expression—

"What was that all about?"

Tai hesitated. "Kari, we're gonna have to clean this place up really quick." Though puzzled, she agreed, and the apartment was sparkling in under twenty minutes. Not long after, another knock came on the door. Tai answered it again, and Matt and T.K., with Patamon in his arms, quickly slipped in, each carrying a backpack, a duffel bag, and a guitar case.

"You guys are staying in my room," Tai said, taking the duffels and leading the way down the hall.

"But where will you sleep?" T.K. asked.

"Probably on the couch!" Matt laughed, following Tai down the hallway.

"Hey, if you want to trade me, keep it up!" Tai threatened, though he smiled as he spoke.

Kari, hearing their voices, came out of her room and almost ran into T.K.. "T.K.! Matt?" She gaped at them, then looked after Tai, who hadn't paused in leading the other two into his room. "What—?"

"We're spending the night!" Patamon said brightly as all three disappeared into Tai's room.

"A couple nights, actually," Matt corrected as Kari followed them in. "It'll be easier to protect both you and T.K. if we're closer together," he explained.

"Didn't Tai tell you?" asked T.K., starting to unpack a few of his things.

"No," Tai cut in, catching Kari's eye and giving her a roguish wink. "I wanted it to be a surprise!"

Kari's only reply was a heavy sigh.

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

After Matt and T.K. had settled into Tai's room, the four relaxed in the living room, watching TV and chatting about school and life in general. Gatomon padded up to Tai and whispered something in his ear. "That's a great idea!" he exclaimed. "Go get it set up, okay?"

Gatomon smiled. "I already did," she purred.

"Hey guys, Gatomon had a really great idea," Tai said, clicking off the TV to ensure the others' full attention.

"What?"

"She suggested that we go to the DigiWorld and bring back Agumon and Gabumon."

"They could help us protect T.K. and Kari," Matt said practically.

"Yeah, good ol' Gabumon and Agumon! It's been a while since I've seen them!"

"We'll practically be having a party here!" Kari laughed. "I'd better go fix something for us to eat."

She started to get up when Tai said, "I don't think we should all go—what if someone called, or came over or something? It's almost midnight! If someone told our parents we weren't at home while they were gone, they'd flip!"

"Don't worry, Tai. I can stay here," Kari offered. "I have some things to do anyway."

"But we were going to take Gatomon, too, and T.K. has to go because we need someone with a D-3 to open the portal."

"I'll be fine alone. Besides, I can reach you by the D-3 or the D-Terminal if I need to." She smiled. "Go on, guys! Get out of here!"

The three boys reluctantly agreed, and soon Kari was by herself. She busied herself in the kitchen, and soon she had fresh bread in the oven, fried rice and a stew that she herself had made up on the stove, and oatmeal with applesauce warming in the microwave; she was elbow deep in a batch of the special recipe double chocolate chip cookie dough when her D-Terminal let out a insistent _beep._

_Oh, brother. I bet it's __Davis__ asking if I've changed my mind._ Kari disinterred herself from the cookie dough and was just reaching for her D-Terminal when the doorbell rang. It's a good thing I stayed here, or else someone would know something's up. Still drying her hands on her apron, she hurried to opened the door--and immediately wished that she _had_ gone with the guys: Davis was kneeling on her doorstep. As she stared at him in open-mouthed astonishment, he grabbed her hand.

"Davis?! What--?!"

"Kari, _please!_ I'm begging you, reconsider! Come with me to the Dance! It would be a lot safer, both for you and for T.M.!" _Plus, it would be me and Kari, just the two of us alone . . ._ Davis sighed inwardly at the thought.

"Davis, how many times to I have to tell you that I'm not going to change my mind?" She made an unsuccessful attempt to free her hand. "I _want_ to go with T.K.!" _Besides, if I did change my mind, it would be me and Davis, just the two of us alone . . ._ She shuddered inwardly at the thought. "I'm going with T.K., and that's final!"

"But Kari—"

"Didn't you hear her? I believe she said 'that's final'." Kari turned quickly, and her mutual surprise and relief found T.K. standing right behind her. Davis' jaw dropped, and his eyes went as big as silver dollars. Kari took the opportunity to reclaim her hand from Davis' grasp.

"T—T.K.?! It's, like, 12:30 at night! What are you doing here?!"

The lanky blonde shrugged, casually draping an arm around Kari's shoulders. "I'm spending the night."

Davis' eyes got even bigger, and for a second Kari thought he might pass out from the shock. But slowly he got to his feet, and with one last, jealous look at Kari and T.K. standing together in the doorway, he hurried off down the hallway.

"Bye, Davis!" Kari called after him, then closed the door and turned to look up at T.K..

Both burst out laughing.

"I can't _believe,"_ Kari gasped when she could speak again, "That you told him you were _spending the night!"_ They both started laughing again, and it was a while before they got their mirth under control.

Kari wiped a tear from her eye and looked up at T.K. with a smile. He smiled back down at her, and both suddenly realized how close they were standing in the narrow entryway. T.K. moved a little closer and was bringing his face nearer to hers when his D-3 crackled. The moment broken, he stepped back, pulling his Digivice off his belt. "T.K. here," he said into the device's mic.

"Hey, T.K.." Tai's voice resounded through the speaker. "Hope we're not interrupting anything—" _If only he knew . . ._ "—But could you come back and open the Portal for us?"

"Did you find Agumon and Gabumon?" Kari asked, speaking into her own D-3.

"The mission was a success! Over and out!"

"Good," Kari said, tucking her D-3 away. She angled a smile up at T.K. as she slipped past him, heading back into the kitchen. T.K. watched her go regretfully, then headed for Tai's room and the computer.

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

It was, as Kari had predicted, practically a party. At first, of course, all anyone wanted to do was eat, but after a while Matt brought out his guitar, then tried to convince T.K. to be his backup. T.K. reluctantly agreed: he still wasn't confident of his skill as a musician, even though Matt said he was great on the guitar. Tai turned on the radio, and the brothers started playing along with it. Tai pretended to be the singer, making everyone laugh; Patamon and Gatomon started dancing, Agumon and Gabumon kept eating, and Kari just sat back and watched it all, smiling happily. They kept the music low, not wanting to wake their neighbors, but they played, danced, and 'sang' far into the night.

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

The next morning T.K., who had somehow ended up on the couch, was awakened by the smell of pancakes, eggs, and bacon, and the sound of Kari's clear voice singing softly as she made breakfast. He groaned and sat up, then slowly got to his feet, rubbing his eyes sleepily as he shuffled into the kitchen.

Kari looked up from the bacon as he came in. "Good morning, Sunshine!" she said brightly. T.K. just blinked owlishly in response, easing down into a chair and trying to stifle a yawn. How could she be so chipper this early in the morning? He scrubbed his face with his hands. How late had they been up last night? It must've been at least 2 a.m. He glanced at his watch. 7:00. That meant they had only gotten about five hours of—

"Kari! Is it really 7:00?"

Kari looked puzzled. "Yeah . . ."

"What about school? We're gonna be late!"

Kari looked down at herself. "I'm ready to go . . ."

But T.K. had bolted from the room.

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

The three guys didn't take long to get ready, and after a hurried (but still undeniably delicious) breakfast they agreed to meet back at the Kamiya's apartment as quickly as they could after their classes: they had to work on their plan of action. T.K. walked Kari to school instead of Davis, and Kari found it to be a much more pleasant trip when she walked with him.

The next three days were uneventful, at least as far as Matt and Tai knew; by that time T.K. had picked up on the fact that everything _wasn't_ alright, that there was something bothering Kari, bothering her deeply. There was something about her eyes . . . a blank, vacant stare that, if he snapped her out of it, was always replaced by a strange, haunted look. She was also having trouble sleeping; often she woke up in the middle of the night, her body shaking and covered in sweat, and once she had even cried out in her sleep, bringing all three boys tumbling (quite literally) into her room. Tai had decided then that she should be moved to his room to sleep in the lower bunk; that way the person in the upper bunk could be close to her to calm her down, and protect her if it came to that. They rotated nights, and when it was his turn to sleep in Tai's room, T.K. stayed up all night with Kari, watching her sleep and listening to her moan and toss and turn restlessly. Once, just when he had been nodding off in the chair where he sat beside her bed, she jerked awake with a gasp, panting.

Instantly T.K. was wide awake and at her side.

"Kari! What is it? What's wrong?"

Without a word, she buried her face in his chest, her whole body shaking. Startled, T.K. sat down on the edge of the bed, a deep flush coloring his cheeks (though the darkness hid this), awkwardly putting his arms around her shoulders comfortingly. He held her until the violent shudders that wracked her delicate frame faded away, held her until he knew by her steady breathing that she was lightly sleeping. Gently he broke contact, laying her back down on the bed; he smiled down at her still face for a moment before starting to rise, intent on returning to his chair.

"T.K.."

Her eyes were only partially open, sleep weighing heavily on her lids, but they were clear, and she was definitely lucid. Turning back, he knelt beside her bed.

"Yes, Kari?"

"Thank you . . ."

He smiled. "What are friends for?" he said lightly, though truly he wondered if Kari's heart had been beating as fast as his had.

"And T.K. . . ."

"Mmm-hmm?"

She looked away quickly. ". . . Please . . . don't tell Tai or Matt about my dreams."

He frowned slightly at the odd request. "Alright," he said with a little shrug.

"Promise?"

He hesitated for a moment--what if their brothers could help in some way?--then nodded once. After all, they were just dreams . . . and what could Matt or Tai do about them, anyway?

But after that night, he knew his fears were justified, though he said nothing to Matt or Tai, knowing they could do nothing about it.

And after all, he'd promised.

Kari hid all evidence of her nocturnal torment completely: only T.K. knew that dark creatures stalked in her dreams . . .

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤


	6. Chapter the Sixth

Closing her eyes and leaning over the sink, Kari splashed the tepid water up on her soapy face. She repeated the action several times before blindly reaching for the towel she knew hung on its rack a few feet away. Water still dribbling down her chin, she buried her face in the towel, rubbing away water and remnant bubbles from the soap. After she was satisfied that her face was dry, she lowered the towel to look into the mirror. What she saw there pained her.

Of late eating seemed to have become automatic for her: she ate because she needed to, not because she wanted to. In fact, she had lost all desire to eat days ago; now she ate only when the hunger pangs grew too sharp to be ignored, and even then just enough to make them cease. This had had some decidedly negative effects on her appearance, and while she had never found herself especially beautiful, she usually thought of herself as decent-looking, and sometimes even a little bit pretty.

But the reflection in the mirror didn't look good at all: her face was thin and pale, her cheeks hollow, and her eyes, which she normally thought to be her best feature, were sunken and dull.

She stared at that face for a long time, barely recognizing it at her own.

_I can't go on like this,_ she thought, shaking her head slightly, and averting her eyes from the pitiful creature the mirror showed. _Something's got to give—_

At that moment the bathroom door swung open, and Kari whirled about in surprise. Looking back at her with no less surprise was T.K., clad only in a pair of boxers, one hand still on the doorknob, the other grasping a towel slung over his bare shoulder.

For a long moment they just stared at each other.

"Oh," T.K. mumbled, blushing and inching back out the door. "Ah . . . Sorry? I--I didn't know you were in here . . ."

"That's . . . okay. I'm finished, anyway." She turned to gather up the few things she had spread out on the sink.

T.K. swallowed hard, finding himself watching her every move closely. He blushed even more deeply as he noticed her attire. Kari, who hadn't been expecting any 'visitors', had shed her fluffy pink robe, revealing the nightgown she wore beneath. It was barely modest, a pink-trimmed, white slip-like garment that flirted with indecency, falling to her mid-thigh, with a spaghetti-strap top. T.K. was surprised that she even _owned_ something like that; somehow it just didn't seem to fit with the Kari he knew. _Well, she does have an adventurous side to her. I guess something daring like that could be considered an 'adventure' of sorts . . ._

If T.K. hadn't been so preoccupied with Kari's attire (or, rather, the lack of it), he might have noticed something very important. Kari hadn't just washed the day's dust and dirt off of her face; she'd washed something else off, too: makeup. A lot of it. And if he'd looked closer, he might also have noticed the deep, dark circles under her eyes that the makeup had been used to hide.

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

_A/N:_

_Sorry about the text problem last time. --;; Hopefully it won't do that again. This one thought she had corrected that before posting..._

_Notes on comments! Yay!_

Eowyn the Fair: Glad you like the Takari-ness. Sorries again about the paragraphs.

Prozacfairy: Candy? Gimme! And cliffies are just kinda...fun. 0 =) ?

battousai24: Thanks! This one will take your advice. As mentioned previously, it was unintentional. (Like your name! Kenshin fan?)


	7. Chapter the Seventh

_ I wake in the middle of the night_

_ Panting_

_ My throat raw from screaming at things not half remembered._

_ Dark, dark, dark_

_ My dreams are all dark_

_ Drowned in shadow, drenched in fear_

_ Fear of what, I don't know._

_ But I do know this:_

_ Something's going to happen _

_Something's coming._

_ . . . And it's coming soon . . ._

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

Thursday morning T.K. thought Kari seemed even worse than usual. He had just about made up his mind to tell Tai, promise or no promise, but the older boy had already left for his classes before T.K. found a chance to talk to him alone. Annoyed with himself for his own carelessness, he left a message on Tai's D-terminal, telling himself that he was probably just imagining things.

But he decided to keep a close eye on Kari anyway.

However, he'd forgotten that basketball practice was starting today, and there was no way his coach would let his 'star player'—as the coach insisted on calling him—miss their first practice. Frustrated, T.K. left another message on Tai's D-terminal, and he labeled this one 'urgent.' _If I play especially well at practice today, Coach might let me leave a little early._

But not, as it turned out, early enough.

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

After school Kari walked home by herself, almost in a daze. It had been days since she had slept well, and her whole body ached with the strain of her tense muscles. _I don't know how much longer I can hold out . . ._ Once she finally reached her apartment, she leaned against the doorframe for a moment to gather what strength she had--it had taken considerably more effort than usual to open the front door--then she tiredly went inside.

"Tai?" she called weakly. No answer. _He's still at school,_ she remembered.

"Matt?" He had band practice, getting ready for tomorrow night, and a big paper to write besides. He would be at the library until late that night.

"T.K.?" He had basketball practice, and he couldn't get out of it. He had told her that she could stay at school and watch, but she was just so_ tired . . . _

"Gatomon?" Her voice was now a bare whisper. Slowly, slowly she made her way to Tai's room and looked in. Just as she had suspected, her partner was there in the upper bunk, sleeping soundly. _I won't wake her._

Too weary to try to make it to her own room, she staggered into her brother's room, slowly sitting in the chair in front of Tai's computer. She stared at the blank, glowing screen for a time; then, gradually, looking almost as if she moved against her will, she pulled out her D-terminal and started it up. Her breath suddenly caught in her throat as she scrolled through her mail: she had 100 new messages, each with the same subject heading: TO THE CHILD OF LIGHT.

A feeling of surrealism came over her as she opened one and read it:

****

**_Child of Light_**

**_We can see every move you make. Do not try anything so foolish as running--I assure you that any escape attempts will prove futile. _**

**_ Long have our eyes been on you. You have great potential. _**

**_Therefore, we offer you a choice: you or him._**

**_If you agree to come to us willingly, without a fight, we will spare your pathetic little friend and leave him in peace . . . and in one piece._**

--Kari shivered at the morbid implications of those words--

**_ Come ALONE or your nightmares will become reality. _**

**_Consider our offer carefully, Child of Light . . ._**

**__**

What the rest of the message said she never knew; her hands were trembling so violently that her D-Terminal slipped from her hands, falling to floor with a clatter, and she couldn't bring herself to pick it up again. Hugging herself tightly, she tried to control her body's violent shaking, drawing in a shuddering breath and forcing herself to think calmly. Closing her eyes, she went over her choices, and all their possible outcomes. She weighed, she considered, and when she opened her eyes, determination shone strongly in their brown depths.

Her trembling all but ceased, she rose to her feet and slipped from Tai's room to her own, taking care so as not to wake Gatomon, who was still snoozing on Tai's bed. Closing the door to her room, she sat down at her computer, her nimble fingers dancing over the keyboard, and soon the Digiport was ready. She looked back towards Tai's room sadly. _Sorry I can't bring you with me, Gatomon,_ she thought, _but I have to do this alone . . . It's for T.K. . . . but I'll leave a note . . . _ She scrawled a few sentences on a scrap of paper and placed it by the computer.

Slowly she pulled out her D-3. Her face set and determined, she stood ramrod straight, held it out towards the computer screen, and cried, "Digiport, open!"

_"Kari!"_ Tai burst through the door just in time to see a brilliant white light engulf his sister. He shielded his eyes from the brightness, and when the light had faded, he noticed the note beside the computer's now-darkened screen. With trembling fingers he picked up the paper and read:

_Dear Tai or Gatomon or whoever finds this note,_

_I'm not doing this for me--I wish someone else could be the hero this time. But don't worry about me, Tai. I'll be fine._

_If you read the e-mails on my D-terminal, you will understand why I have to do this alone. If you really want to help me, please don't come after me. You'll only make the situation worse._

_Love,_

_Kari_

_ P.S. Tai, if I don't make it back . . . will you tell T.K. that I love him?_

"What is it, Tai?" Gatomon yawned sleepily, rubbing her eyes with a paw.

Tai didn't reply at first; he was too busy searching for Kari's D-Terminal. He finally found it on the floor in his room, looking as if it had been dropped, perhaps even thrown.

"Tai?" Gatomon began again. "What—?"

"I'm not sure," Tai said, flipping her D-terminal open and scrolling through e-mails. "But I'm gonna find out."

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

Matt was dozing over a large reference book in the library when the call came. It was Tai, and he was almost hysterical, a state Matt had never seen (or, in this case, heard) him in. Tai's words poured out in a flood, coming so rapidly that Matt didn't catch most of what he said the first time around.

"Okay," he said, banishing the last clinging cobwebs of drowsiness from his mind, and giving a scowling librarian an apologetic smile. "One more time, a little more slowly. _What_ happened?"

"It's Kari!" Tai's voice was strained, nearly cracking in his concern. "She's gone to face some crazy evil digimon _without Gatomon,_ and she says she doesn't need any help!"

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

_A/N: Grr....the formatting on this site irritates this one greatly..._


	8. Chapter the Eighth

When Kari opened her eyes, she was once again standing on the beach. The Dark Ocean stretched to the shadowy horizon, joining with the ashen-hued sky.

She had opened the Digiport, just as if she were going to the DigiWorld, but as the light engulfed her, she had felt a thread of darkness in its pure white brilliance. The thread had grown, swallowing the light, which seemed to feed it, and the thread--now a thick cord--wrapped itself around Kari. It cut into her, _burned_ against her wherever it touched; it tore her from the path to the Digital World--Kari had soon closed her eyes, unable to bear watching any longer--and dragged her into the path to the World of Darkness.

And the Dark Ocean was the heart of that world.

A cool breeze blew out from the sea, and Kari shivered, from the subtle menace in the wind's caress as much as from the cold. And the cold did not pass with the simple gust of wind; the coldness stayed, wrapping itself around her like a blanket . . . or a shroud.

Kari stared out at the dark water in front of her, so black that it looked as if the night itself had melted and trickled down from the heavens to rest on the ground before her feet, an endless mass of smooth, shining jet. _So dark . . ._

She shook her head, an uneasiness entering her mind for the first time, a nagging twinge of doubt. _What have I gotten myself into?_

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

T.K. squinted, blinking water out of his eyes as he dashed after Matt down the rain-soaked streets of Tokyo. His older brother hadn't told him where they were going, or even why, and all that Matt would say about his conversation with Tai was that it was an urgent issue that needed to be addressed--immediately.

Matt caught a glimpse of T.K.'s face as his little brother followed him up and down the streets. He gritted his teeth against a pain he knew T.K. would experience many times more severely. _He has no idea what's happened. He and Kari are so close--they're like best friends . . . I just don't know how he'll take this news._

Matt closed his eyes and ran on.

They had been running for some time now--T.K. had actually begun to feel it--when Matt suddenly stopped in front of a building. T.K. recognized it instantly. "Hey, this is my old Junior Highschool!" he yelled over the roar of the torrential rain. "What—" He started to ask a question, but Matt was already halfway across the courtyard, heading for the main door.

_Well,_ T.K. thought as he hurried to catch up with his brother, _I'll be glad to get out of this rain at least . . ._

The brothers stepped into the welcome refuge of their old school, pushing back their hoods with relief. Then, without even pausing to catch his breath, Matt started off down the corridors; T.K. fell in to step beside him, matching his brother's rapid stride. _I wonder what the big hurry is?_ he mused to himself.

Soon T.K. knew where they were going: the computer lab. _Maybe we're taking a trip to the Digital World._ In his pocket, his hand closed around his D-3, and he felt Patamon move inside his backpack. He hoped it was waterproof; otherwise he'd have one wet digimon on his hands in a few minutes. _Good ol' Patamon,_ he smiled, but then slowly it faded again. _Matt's really worried about something,_ he thought, carefully scanning his brother's face and easily picking out all the usual little tell-tale signs, which were often the only indicators of Yamato's inner strain and stress. _Well, I guess I'll find out in a few minutes._ T.K. shrugged inwardly. _We're almost to the lab._

Tai looked up as Matt and T.K. slid to a stop in front of the computer lab's open door, then went back to typing furiously. T.K. dropped exhaustedly into a chair, trying to catch his breath, but Matt immediately made his way to Tai's side.

"Did you tell him?" the brown-haired boy asked under his breath, not looking away from the computer's screen.

"Couldn't." Matt's voice sounded choked, and Tai's eyes flicked over to rest on his best friend's pale face. "They're so close, and he--he has no idea--"

"Then we'll tell him together," Tai said, rising and putting a reassuring hand on Matt's shoulder. The blonde nodded, and both turned to the younger boy. "T.K.," Tai began, "I had Matt bring you here for a reason. It's . . . about Kari." Tai paused, unsure of what to say next.

T.K. blinked. "What about her?"

"Well—"

"If she doesn't want to go to the Dance with me anymore, she should tell me herself."

"No . . . no, that's not it. You've got it all wrong . . ." Tai looked uncomfortable. "Kari still wants to go to the Dance with you, at least I think she does, but, well . . . she might not be _able_ to go."

_Huh?_ T.K. blinked, several times and rapidly. _She wants to but she might not be able to?_ His blue eyes narrowed suddenly. _There's more going on here than they're telling me,_ he thought, looking at the half-guilty faces of the university students standing before him.

"What do you mean?" he demanded aloud, unconsciously clenching his hands into fists. "What's happened to Kari? And you can't say nothing's happened," he continued relentlessly, noting the look that passed between the two older boys, "I won't believe that for an instant."

Tai nodded slowly, rubbing a hand over his face. He opened his mouth, but no words would come out. Finally Matt spoke:

"T.K. . . . she's disappeared."

T.K. took an involuntary step back. "Wh-what?"

"She was having nightmares." Tai finally seemed to have found his voice, shaky though it was. " And . . . and then she got a bunch of e-mails from some evil digimon, telling her that someone she cared for very deeply would be in terrible danger if she didn't come to the World of Darkness . . . alone."

"But . . . who was . . ."

"You. It was _you,_ T.K., she—" Tai's voice broke, and he had to pause to regain his composure.

_What?_ T.K.'s mind was reeling. _Why would she do something like this? She knows better than—oh! _His mind suddenly jumped back to an event that had taken place more than five years ago, when he had first moved to Odaiba and come to this school: Kari had been having nightmares then, too, and they weren't that far from being reality: evil digimon had tried to drag her to their world and, once successful, tried to keep her there as their Queen . . .

"She didn't tell anyone," Tai, voice and composure both recovered, broke in on his thoughts, "Not even Gatomon. She just left a note saying not to worry, she'd be fine."

_That's so typically Kari,_ T.K. thought, a bitter taste filling his mouth. _Never wanting others to worry about her, even when it's something as big as this, even when she needs others to worry about her._ He drew a deep, shuddering breath. "So what are we going to do?"

"What _can_ we do?" Matt said. "We don't really even know where Kari is, or even how she got there, so how can we help her?"

"I don't know," Tai said, brown eyes flashing. "But we have to do something!"

"Do we?"

Both Matt and Tai turned to look at T.K., their mouths agape, shock written across their faces as clearly as if it had been done with a black permanent marker.

"What . . . did you . . . say?"

T.K. stood with his head down, the brim of his hat covering his eyes, easily his most expressive feature; he'd learned long ago to hide them from others at times like this. His shoulders were hunched as he spoke, but his voice was clear. "You guys may think this sounds crazy, but I'm going to say it anyway. Kari said that she'd be fine and that she didn't need any help. I think we should trust her judgment." Whirling suddenly, he bolted for the door.

"T.K. . . ."

He heard the concern in his brother's voice, and he paused in the doorway. "When she wants our help, she'll ask for it!" he said in a low voice, then ran on.

"T.K.!"

Matt lunged after him, stopping for a brief moment in the doorway to call his brother's name again. He started to follow, but Tai laid a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"Let him go."

The tall blonde nodded slowly. He knew T.K. needed to be alone right now.

And if anyone understood needing to be alone sometimes, it was Matt Ishida.

"Do you think he's right?" he finally asked, glancing back at Tai.

"I don't know," Tai said softly, looking down the hall. "But I hope so."

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

T.K. didn't stop running until he reached his destination: the beach. _This is where she disappeared last time,_ he thought, panting. Shaking his head, he set off down the beach. _Maybe this is some sort of gate to the World of Darkness._

It was still raining, and the wind of the first typhoon of the year whipped his short blonde hair around his face with hurricane force, making his eyes water. He looked out at the stormy sea through moisture-filled eyes, and its grey crests reminded him of the Dark Ocean, where he knew Kari must be right now. His sighed and closed his eyes, misery pounding through every square inch of his body. He liked how the storm pummeled him: he felt deserving of the punishment. He should have looked after Kari. He should have been more responsible. He should have remembered her past encounter with the World of Darkness, remembered about her nightmares, and put two and two together.

He clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles going white. _Why didn't I learn my lesson years ago, when she got left behind in the DigiWorld? If she hadn't had Gatomon . . . if Davis and I hadn't gotten there when we did . . . _He didn't want to think about what might have happened if they hadn't gotten there in time.

The truth was, no matter what he had said to Matt and Tai, he sincerely wanted nothing more than to rush off to save Kari. But how could you rush off somewhere if you didn't know where that somewhere was? It was frustrating, maddening even, but T.K. knew impatience would get him nowhere.

Deep in his heart of hearts, there was only one thing that Takeru Takashi feared: losing the ones he loved most dearly. Kari held a very special spot in his heart, and if he lost her . . . He shook his head hard, as if attempting to quite literally shake the thought out of his head. However, it refused to dislodge itself—

"T.K."

The quiet voice startled him out of the torturous whirl of thoughts that hammered his mind, much like the storm hammered at his body. Turning, he was surprised to find Gatomon standing behind him. Her normally-clean white fur was muddied, and she was drenched from the drooping tufts of her ears to the tip of her long tail, but it was definitely Gatomon.

"Gatomon," he managed to say at last. "What are you doing here?"

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

_A/N: "...shock written across their faces as clearly as if it had been done with a black permanent marker."_

_Yes, that's meant to be funny. I laughed when I wrote it. Just trying to make you folks smile a bit. _

_Did it work?_


	9. Chapther the Ninth

Kari wandered slowly down the shoreline, scanning the horizons as she went. _Now that I'm finally here, no one else is around. _ She couldn't quite make up her mind as to whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing.

This world was still as disturbingly eccentric now as it had been five years ago. It still smelled like the ocean, but it was too quiet, too undisturbed. It was still bizarre, horrible, unnatural. She shuddered and wished she knew what to do next.

On impulse she walked over to the very edge of the disquietingly still water--there weren't even any waves breaking its glassy surface—and a peculiar temptation suddenly seized her, pressing her to shatter that placid mirror. She hesitated for a long moment, then bent and dipped the tips of her fingers into the water.

It felt as though it had some kind of electrical charge to it: a small shock ran through her as her fingers broke the smooth, dark surface, sending little ripples out to who knew where.

She quickly recoiled, for the water had a strange, oily texture and was very cold. Standing abruptly, she wiped her hand on her pants' leg; she didn't like to be in contact with even those tiny droplets of liquid from that Ocean.

_Well,_ she thought, _whoever called me here knows I'm here now, if they didn't know before. _She took a few steps back to avoid the waves washing up—the water had at last started moving, and the tide was coming in. _Did—did I do that?_ she wondered, moving back even further as the waves grew more aggressive, pounding the beach with their white-crested fists. She shuddered again, then stood quietly on the sandy shore, her eyes scanning the horizon, the eerily silent sea-breeze stirring her shoulder-length hair with its chill fingers as she waited.

Time seemed to have no importance in that strange, mist-shrouded world, so Kari didn't know how long she'd been standing there when she finally saw something, a dark smudge on the horizon flying low over the water. As it drew closer, she saw that it was an unfamiliar digimon, and it had a rather large something in it grasp, a capsule of some sort. Kari realized with a jolt that the digimon was heading straight towards her.

In a matter of minutes the digimon had reached the beach. It carefully set its burden down on the sand, then landed gracefully beside it. After tinkering with the pod for a moment, it turned to face her, examining her with its fierce gold eyes. Kari returned the beast's intense stare, looking it over carefully:

Covered with short white fur, it stood on its two hind feet, though it had a peculiar, half-hunched posture. Great white wings sprouted from its back, and its body was muscled but still slim. A thick purple band of fur wrapped around its thighs, and a double set of thinner bands encircled its narrow waist and forearms. Its tail was wispy, like that of a horse, its oversized feet clawed; its forefeet were also clawed, looking rather like the legs of some sort of bird of prey. Its proud eagle's head was held high, and two purple stripes were on each pronounced cheekbone beneath its piercing golden eyes.

Those eyes bored into her, but Kari met its stare bravely, unwaveringly; Tai had taught her long before that in certain situations being afraid didn't help, so courage was the best defense. Suddenly the creature spoke, its voice strong and sonorous, but also somehow gentle and almost sad.

"A child. A young, female child, delicate and beautiful." It cocked its head in a birdlike manner, as if trying to view her from a different angle. "Truthfully, you are not what I was expecting, but I can see why the Undersea Master wanted to bring you here." It sat back on its haunches, gazing down at her through lidded eyes. "You have much power, much strength, though most would not see it. Most would not know to look for it in such a frail creature . . ."

"Why does he want me here?" Kari asked, her voice sounding weak and thin after the white digimon's rich rolling tones. Fierce though its appearance might be, the girl liked this rather beautiful digimon and hoped to make friends.

The digimon stretched its great feathered wings and chuckled. "That question must be answered by the Undersea Master himself."

"Who is this 'Undersea Master' anyway?" she asked a little snappishly.

The digimon shifted uncomfortably, folding its wings in tightly, then replied softly, almost regretfully, "You will see soon enough, Child of Light. You will see soon enough."

Kari did not like that sound of this at all. She wondered once again what she'd gotten herself into, and if perhaps this hadn't been a mistake after all.

"Oh!" Her eyes widened. "I'm sorry," she said with a little bow. "I never introduced myself. My name's Kari Kamiya. What's yours?"

The white digimon drew itself up proudly. "I am Hippogriffonmon, an Ultimate-level digimon."

"Nice to meet you," Kari said with a warm smile and another little bow.

Hippogriffonmon did not reply; he just made an odd, half-strangled-sounding noise deep in his throat, and Kari went cold as she watched his once-clear golden eyes suddenly blazed forth the possessed red of a digimon controlled by another's will. _But he's not—_ She stiffened as she noticed something very important, something she hadn't seen when she'd looked Hippogriffonmon over before, though now she wondered how she could have possibly missed it.

_N-no way . . . I thought we destroyed all those!_

For wrapped around Hippogriffonmon's upper arm was a Dark Spiral.

The symbols on the Spiral suddenly flashed in a strange, intricate pattern, the markings lighting up the same unsettling red as the digimon's eyes. "Come on," he said, his voice, which had been so kind moments before now harsh and impatient. "Get in." He gestured to the capsule, a slightly flattened spherical pod, its bottom half completely opaque and made of some dark metal; its top half, which was now raised on a hinge, was made of the same material, though transparent view ports made a studded ring around its point of widest circumference.

"Where are you going to take me?" Kari asked as she slowly walked towards the capsule.

"To the Undersea Master."

"Where is he?" She swung herself over the lip of the pod, sliding down into its bottom, which she found was filled with soft, sweet-smelling pillows. Sitting in the capsule's center with a pillow hugged tightly to her chest, she watched as Hippogriffonmon replaced the lid, fastening all the screws tightly.

"Under the Ocean," he grunted as he worked. "Very deep."

She heard the scrape of claws against the metal roof of her spherical prison, and the whole pod gave a sudden lurch as Hippogriffonmon leaped into the air, his powerful wings carrying them easily above the rather sinister-looking waves. Crawling over to one of the view ports, Kari watched the beach slowly getting smaller and smaller, until finally she could no longer see it anymore. With a little sigh, she crawled back to the center of the pod, returning to her favourite pillow. She clutched it tightly, wishing . . . wishing that T.K. . . .

"Why am I getting the silent treatment?" Hippogriffonmon's voice broke in on her thoughts. She noticed that his voice had lost its edge, and was soft and rich once more. "I can hear you through the pod, you know. It's a very light but very strong metal, perfect for all sorts of things."

"Sorry," Kari apologised. "I didn't know." Putting her face up against the glass, she looked up at Hippogriffonmon; just as she suspected, the eyes that looked back at her were golden once more, and contained a trace of amusement. "So, how far is this undersea city?"

"Not far now. Look over at that volcano, away to your right," the winged digimon directed. Kari did as he said, moving to another view port halfway around the capsule.

"Is there something special about it?" she asked, studying the ordinary-looking landmass.

"Yes. It is the back door to the Dark Master's undersea kingdom. For many years it was the way that non-marine digimon got to the city. The tunnel came out somewhere near the city's center." He gave a little sigh. "But it's closed now. Hasn't been used for years. I would be surprised if the volcano hasn't completely blocked off that tunnel by now." They were only a few hundred yards or so from the volcano now, and he lowered the capsule gently into the dark water, still hovering over it.

"Now what?" she asked, looking up at Hippogriffonmon. Then—"Hey!" Kari watched with alarm as the capsule began to sink—fast. "Wait!" she called to her escort, pressing up against the glass. The capsule was already halfway submerged, the waves lapping against the bottoms of the view ports. "If the entrance for non-marine digimon is closed, then how are _you_ going to get down there?"

She heard the winged digimon chuckle softly as the obsidian-tinged water continued to rise quickly. "How? I must _swim!"_ Then the water closed over the top of the view ports, and Kari was engulfed in a sudden, cold darkness. Slowly she sat down, back to the wall, and picked up her cushion once more, staring out at the dark, empty water surrounding her.

She continued to slowly sink, though it was hard to tell how fast she was moving since the water was already so dark. It had unexpectedly become very cold; Kari could see her breath crystallize before her in the frigid air. Suddenly the entire capsule gave a strange shudder. Rising to her knees, she peered out and noticed some digimon--_Dolphmon_ they were called, she remembered--pushing and pulling her little craft along. All, she noted, were wearing Dark Rings.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something plunge into the water in an explosion of bubbles. The bubbles cleared and Kari saw that it was Hippogriffonmon. He glided quickly and easily through the water, powerfully muscled wings propelling him through the water just as smoothly they had through the air; as he swam past her, he gave her a reassuring wink. Then he dove swiftly down through the black-tinted water, soon disappearing from sight.

_Where is he going?_ Kari wondered. She squinted, straining to see through the murky water. _I don't see any city . . ._ Then they rounded the underwater base of the volcano, and she caught her breath at what lay before her.

It was beautiful. The many buildings looked like smoothed, sanded pieces of coral, and a clear bubble of some sort covered the whole thing, the transparent dome allowing the many lights of the city to illuminate the Ocean around it with its light . . . _black_ light.

With an inward jolt Kari recalled the lighthouse that had been on the beach five years ago. It had hidden a control spire, and she and T.K. had destroyed it--but it had also given off _black_ light, just like this city.

Thinking about that made her wish T.K. were there again . . . _No,_ she pushed the thought away firmly. _That's selfish to want him here. Remember, you did this to protect him, to make sure that he never had to come here!_

Still, she couldn't rid herself of the ache that loneliness had buried deep inside. She shuddered, sitting back on her heels and watching apprehensively as the dark, yet eerily beautiful city slowly grew closer, until at last it filled the entire view port, the only thing Kari could see before her.

There could be no looking back now.

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤

_A/N: Hippogriffonmon is, in fact, an actual digimon; I did not make him up. Check the 'Digidex' at The Digital Empire page. It's an awesome site._


	10. Chapter the Tenth

They sat against the wall underneath the bridge, shivering and huddling together for warmth. Even tucked up underneath the supports as they were, every now and then a fierce gust came along and soaked them to the skin again. T.K. had let Patamon out of his backpack, which was also soaked; they'd discovered from a very bedraggled-looking Patamon that it was not waterproof, offering little to no protection from the rain.

T.K. leaned back against the wall, staring out at the turbulent waters of the ocean. After nearly half an hour of silence, Patamon decided to scout out the area--perhaps he could find a clue to the location of the Gate to the World of Darkness, if it even existed, and since he was already soaked anyway, flying in the rain didn't bother him.

"Alright, but be careful," T.K. had finally said. "Don't get lost, that'll be easy to do in this weather."

"I'll be fine, T.K., you worry too much," Patamon giggled before flapping off into the storm.

Gatomon sat beside him in silence, her eyes trained on the violent downpour just feet away; she, too, seemed to be waiting.

"So," T.K. finally broke the silence. "What do you think, Gatomon?"

Even though the question seemed general, even though he hadn't said _her _name, Gatomon knew exactly what and who the blonde boy was talking about. She didn't reply; she didn't have to.

"I don't know what to think, either," T.K. said quietly. "I guess we just have to be patient—"

Gatomon suddenly squeezed her eyes tightly shut and burst out, "T.K., if Kari calls you, I want you to take me with you!"

"What?" T.K. blinked, looking a bit surprised at her outburst.

"If Kari calls anyone, she's going to call _you,_ T.K.. Not me, not Tai. _You._ But Kari needs me, too, if she's going to fight this thing, so I want you to take me along with you and Patamon!"

T.K. smiled down at her and rubbed the top of her head affectionately. "I will, Gatomon. I promise."

At that moment a very wet Patamon perched himself on T.K.'s head. "Hey, what about me? You didn't forget about me, did you?"

"I'd never leave you, buddy!" T.K. laughed, pulling the dripping digimon off his head and hugging him tightly, not caring one bit that his shirt was getting soaked again. _If she calls for us, Kari will probably need all the help she can get,_ he thought grimly.

A determined look came over his face, and his blue eyes narrowed in resolve.

Five years ago T.K. had almost lost Kari to the World of Darkness.

He would not let it happen again.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤


	11. Chapter the Eleventh

Looking up and down the deserted streets of the dark, undersea city, Kari felt a chill run down her spine. This couldn't be right--it was so _empty._

_Where are all the people who built it?_ she wondered, then also wondered if she truly wanted to know.

She had found that, although there was obviously plenty of oxygen in the dome, it was still somehow hard for her to breathe—it felt like she was being stifled by the very darkness of the air itself. She ignored this, however, bent on her mission. Now that she was here, where was the 'Undersea Master'?

_Where's Hippogriffonmon?_ she wondered suddenly, glancing around, a sense of acute discomfort growing as she realized that the large winged digimon was nowhere to be seen.

She began to make her way slowly towards the plaza at the center of the circular city. As she walked she glanced about anxiously, searching for some sign of life, but it seemed she was alone . . . then she staggered and nearly went to her knees as she took her first step into the plaza. A black _throbbing_ exploded through her mind and body, the awful waves of utter darkness tearing at her sanity . . . but then she gathered her thoughts, shielding herself from the evil, and she stood straight and tall once more.

The evil pulse seemed to be coming from a black marble fountain situated in the plaza's center. Kari carefully approached and gazed down into the sullen mirror, staring down at her own reflection, a dark, shadowy version of herself looking back up at her. Was she doing the right thing? she wondered again, but she swiftly pushed the thought and its trailing doubts aside. Reluctantly she reached out and touched the torpid water with her fingertips; again her hand felt somehow _dirty,_ but she ignored the feeling and did not withdraw her hand. Instead she closed her eyes and sent out a question:

_I'm here. Now what do you want?_

There was a long pause, then she felt an unpleasant, icy jolt run through her arm, like that of electricity or bitterly cold needles, or perhaps both combined. Seconds later she received the reply she expected, but did not want:

**_Welcome, Child of Light. We knew you would come. We felt your presence the moment you first entered our World . . . You have more power than we expected._**

_I don't want flattery. Stop stalling._

_**Oh ho, impatient, are you? We admire your spirit. We enjoy a challenge.**_

_Tell me what it is you want._

The reply was but a single word, yet it made her very blood run cold:

**_You._**

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤


	12. Chapter the Twelfth

The rain had finally stopped, and T.K. was dozing when he felt her scream.

"Kari!" Jolted awake, he tried to leap to his feet, but only succeeded on hitting his head on the bottom of the bridge, dropping himself back into the dust. _"Kari!"_

"T.K., what is it?" Gatomon asked worriedly, shaking his crumpled form. "It's Kari, isn't it? What's happened to her? T.K.!" she was almost shouting now.

But the tall blonde didn't even seem to have heard her; his legs were drawn up to his chest, his head dropped onto his knees, his entire body shaking. "Kari . . ." he moaned, his breath coming in gasps. _"Kari . . ."_

Suddenly he was on his feet, climbing down from their shelter, stepping to the edge of the wall that plunged downwards into the bay. His eyes were bright and unseeing as he stared before him fixedly, as if searching the empty air before him for something.

"T.K., what is it?" Patamon asked, hovering slightly behind his friend.

Once again T.K. didn't reply. Not to Patamon, anyway. The two digimon could hear him muttering something under his breath, the same words over and over; straining her ears Gatomon finally made it out: "I'm here, Kari, I'm here. Let me help you. Let me come to you. Please . . . you can't do this alone . . ."

After a moment he fell silent, his eyes half-closing and filling with tears, hot tears of distress, frustration, and regret. When he spoke again, it was barely a whisper: "Kari . . . I should have told you . . . I should have told you long ago . . . I . . . Kari, I l—"

There was a sudden burst of light, and there she was once again, just as before. Her arms outstretched, she was surrounded by a pink circle of light . . . but the light was edged with a strange sort of darkness. Kari was pale, a grey-hued version of herself, as if all her color had been removed, or was being drawn out of her somehow.

"T.K.," she said, her face troubled, her voice frightened and unsteady.

"Kari," he breathed, then clenched his fists at his sides. "I'm coming!"

And with that he leapt forward, both digimon at his sides.

_There was a flash of light, then a swirl of colors, first magenta, then shafts of turquoise, cobalt, silver, and grey, then pale lilac. Strange symbols raced by them, twining in and out of the kaleidoscope, and they were spinning, spinning, spinning towards a dark globe that suddenly blazed forth with a strange, pale luminance . . ._

Another flash of rose, and all three landed in a heap, panting heavily.

"T.K. . . . I thought I made you promise we wouldn't do that _ever_ again," Gatomon said from her where she was awkwardly sprawled across his lower back. Patamon, one ear pinned under T.K.'s stomach, let out a little moan of agreement.

T.K. didn't reply; instead he slowly got to his feet, staring out over the dark, tempestuous waves washing up on the beach, a cold wind tugging at him, as if trying to pull him off the cliff.

He'd made it. He'd made it back to the World of Darkness.

¤ ¤ - ¤ ¤


	13. Chapter the Thirteenth

The five young adults were crowded into Izzy's room at the Izumi residence, all peering anxiously at the computer screen and the slight redhead who sat in front of it. Without taking his eyes from his screen he said, "I've been running some diagnostics of this situation and, with Willis and Ken's considerable input, formulated a strategy."

"So what is it already? Cut the fancy talk and just tell us!"

Well used to comments like that, especially from Davis, Izzy continued as if he hadn't even heard the other boy's words. "As you know, the D-Terminals are linked in a special way that allows them to receive e-mails from each other, and they also appear to be somehow linked to the D-3s. Obviously you can send and receive e-mails from other computers not linking into this special network, but a cursory examination of the Web path showed the messages' routes to be radically different.

"Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I took a look at Kari's D-Terminal. Somehow this 'NecroDragoDaemon,' as he calls himself, sent her a lot of e-mails, but a closer examination showed that they had come _from somewhere inside our network,_ rather than from outside it. Obviously there must be some way to tap into the network that connects your D-Terminals, because when I traced those same messages I came up with a blank." Now he did look at them, his dark eyes serious. "That means that the e-mails didn't come from any one of your addresses. I'd have known if they had—and with the advanced trace program Willis helped me design, I would have also been able to tell if any of you had tried to cover your tracks."

The whole room seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

"Guess I owe you an apology, Davis," Matt muttered, looking the other way.

"That's okay. I know why you reacted that way--I think."

"Anyway," Izzy continued, "I couldn't figure out where those e-mails had come from until Ken informed me that he'd gotten information with an almost identical signature a few years ago, when we were battling VenomMyotismon. After I explained to him what had happened with Kari and T.K., he rushed over here immediately to try to help me figure some of this out. He and Yolei arrived about the same time, actually—"

"Speaking of which, where are they now?" Sora asked curiously

"I'm getting to that," Izzy snapped, slightly irked at being interrupted yet again. "As I was saying, with all three of us working together, it didn't take long for us to hack into the D-Terminal network and send an e-mail to Ken, Kari, and Yolei's D-Terminals. _And the signature of the messages we sent were similar to that of the other messages sent to Kari and Ken."_

"Great," Tai said, "Wonderful. But where are Ken and Yolei now?"

Izzy smiled smugly. "Finding Joe."

"What!"

Everyone turned to look at Cody, surprised at his sudden outburst.

"What's wrong, Cody?" Sora asked, concerned.

The younger boy looked distraught. "Don't you know that Joe's studying in America this semester? They can't reach him!"

Izzy's smile widened and became a good deal smugger. "Oh, yes, they can."

"How?" Davis had voiced the question, but they all were wondering the same thing.

"I sent them through a Digital Portal."

"What?" Tai gaped. "But—but where did you send them _to?_ Won't they just pop out of some random computer over there?"

"Oh, that was easy." Izzy shrugged. "Since we were looking for Joe . . . I sent them to Mimi."

* * *

"Come _on,_ Ken, we haven't got all day!" 

Ken Ichijouji heaved a little sigh. He was well aware of the fact that they didn't have much time. He wasn't stupid, after all. What he _didn't_ know was exactly what they should do with the little time they did have.

He and Yolei had gone through the Digiport, met Mimi at a predetermined location in the DigiWorld, then gone on through to America. That had been simple enough, and had taken less than fifteen minutes. The hard part was . . . where could they find Joe? Mimi didn't really seem to know, and neither did Izzy or the rest of the Digidestined kids; his home phone had been busy, and his cell phone was apparently turned off. Izzy had started running a scan on all the possible universities in the New York City area, but it was taking forever . . .

"What do you suggest we do?" Ken asked quietly. "We don't know where we're going."

"We're taking the subway to Central Park!" Yolei sighed as they followed Mimi through the dense crowds. "I've always wanted to see Central Park . . ."

"Yes, that's very nice, but what does that have to do with finding Joe?"

Apparently Mimi heard his question, because she looked over her shoulder at him. "Central Park is a great location to meet people! I sent Joe an e-mail telling him to meet us there at our usual spot—"

"You have a usual spot?" Yolei said, a teasing note in her voice.

"Oh, it's not like that," Mimi said with a little bit of a blush. "Although . . ."

Whatever she'd been about to say was cut off by a blaring horn and the loud clatter of a subway as it passed them.

"This place is so big!" Poromon cooed from his comfortable position in Yolei's arms.

"What are you talking about, you've been on the subways in Tokyo dozens of times!"

"Yes, hidden in a bag most of the time! I can't see a thing!"

"Oh . . ."

"Hey," Ken cut in hastily. "How's this . . . when we get back home, we'll ride the subway there, so Poromon can see it. I'll pay for your ticket . . . you can choose the location if you'd like . . ."

"You mean like a _date?"_ Yolei grinned.

Ken swallowed hard. _Well, actually . . ._

He was saved from having to answer by Mimi's cheerful, "There's our train! Come on, guys, or we'll miss it!"

Exchanging quick smiles, Ken and Yolei both sprinted for the platform.

* * *

"Will someone _please_ explain to me why we need to find Joe anyway?" Davis said, sounding very bored from where he was sprawled out on his back on Izzy's bedroom floor. 

He should have known better. Izzy was always ready to explain the complex workings of whatever project he'd whipped up, though he knew most of the group didn't really understand even half of it. Davis himself was lucky if he understood even that much.

"Certainly," Izzy said nonetheless, swiveling his chair around to look at the rest of the Digidestined. "As I hope you know, Joe once possessed the Crest of Reliability. Gomamon, his Digimon, is a Marine-Type Digimon, as are all of his digivolved forms.

"There really isn't very much we can do to help Kari at this point, but if history repeats itself, then it's safe to assume that T.K. has found a way to get to her." He gave them a half-smile. "After all, he managed it last time."

"Well, isn't T.J. special," Davis muttered under his breath, a petulant look coming over his face. "Why don't _I_ ever get to save Kari all on my own?"

"What?"

"Uh!" he gulped, sitting up quickly, "I—said—there's supposed to be a special! On T.V., you know? It's all about the history of yo-yos. I don't know what you thought I said, but it definitely wasn't anything about how T.K. always gets to rescue Kari, and how I think it's totally unfair. Nothing like that."

"Whatever you say, Davis," Cody snorted.

"Yo-yos?" Sora said quietly, looking at Tai skeptically.

"Yeah. I bet he's on there himself--he's definitely crazy enough to be."

"I think it's a family thing," Matt agreed.

"_Ahem,_ in any case," Izzy broke in, "as I said before, there's nothing that we can really do about this right now except to sit tight and hope for the best. _However,"_ he stressed the word before anyone could protest what he'd just said, "I have come up with one thing that might prove useful to T.K. and Kari, wherever they are."

"What's that?" Tai asked. He was seated backwards in the room's only other chair, his arms folded over its back.

"The Digi-Egg of Reliability."

"Huh?"

"Wait, I think I get it," Tai broke in. "They're at the Dark Ocean, right?"

"That's right," Matt gasped. "I remember T.K. saying something about an 'Undersea Master' who was supposed to come for Kari!"

"Right," Tai nodded. "So it only makes sense to give them something that will change Gatomon and Patamon into Marine-Type Digimon. That's where Joe and the Crest of Reliability come in."

"Correct," Izzy fairly beamed at them. They really were smarter than they looked sometimes. Which was a good thing in Tai's case. "Now, before they left for New York, I downloaded a special program onto Yolei's D-Terminal--a program that she and Ken both helped me write this very afternoon. This program will collect a code vital to the transfer of the Digi-Eggs, and it will ensure that the transaction is stable and complete.

"Since that Digi-Egg had the crest of Reliability on it, I'm fairly certain that Joe's Digivice has the rest of the information I need to complete a successful transaction between the D-Terminals. Once Yolei collects that code and gets it back here, the rest should be child's play."

"Sure," Davis mumbled. "Maybe if the child is a child prodigy."

"Of course the most important part is the Digi-Egg itself, which is stored on Cody's D-Terminal." Izzy looked over at the younger boy. "Cody, would you be willing to share your Digi-Egg with T.K. and Kari?"

"Sure." He handed his D-Terminal over to Izzy, who met his gaze very seriously.

"Before you agree to this, I have to let you know something very important. I'm certain that I can transfer copies of your Digi-Egg to another D-Terminal; however, I'm not certain what effect this will have on the original."

"Are you saying that something bad could happen to my Digi-Egg?"

"I'm saying that there's a risk involved. I don't think anything will happen--nothing _should_ happen, anyway--but there's always a risk. I just wanted you to be aware of that. I thought you deserved to know." He raised his eyebrows slightly. "Now that you know what's at stake, do you still want to go through with this?"

* * *

_A/N: Sorry that it's taken me so long to update! Life is crazy recently...and I can't promise that I'll update again any time soon..._

_But as far as I know, nobody really reads this, so it doesn't matter anyway!_


	14. Chapter the Fourteenth

T.K. stalked determinedly down the beach beside the Dark Ocean. He'd found Kari's footprints pretty quickly, and he hoped that he'd find Kari herself almost as quickly. Not that he really expected to, of course: these things always ended up being rather complicated.

"T.K., slow down!" Patamon called, hard-pressed to keep up with his partner's rapid pace.

"Yeah," Gatomon panted. "We want to find Kari just as much as you do, T.K., but we won't be any help to her if we're too tired!"

T.K. seemed not to hear, however, and continued on, perhaps speeding up a bit, in fact.

"He's lost it," Gatomon said, pausing for a short conference with Patamon.

"No, he's just afraid he's going to lose Kari," the other Digimon replied. "C'mon, we can't let him get too far ahead!"

T.K., meanwhile, hadn't slowed his stride, and the two Digimon had to run to catch up.

"Hey, what's that?" Patamon said after a long while. At this T.K. finally did pause, and his Digimon assumed his favourite perch on his head.

"What's what?" the blonde boy asked, trying to look up at his partner.

_"That!"_

"What are you _talking_ about?" Gatomon said skeptically, looking out at the empty expanse of ocean that Patamon indicated. "Don't tell me _you've_ flipped, too. I don't see any—"

With a muffled roar, a blur of white fur and feathers burst from the water with a noise and spray to rival that of a geyser. Rivulets trailing from its glossy wings and wet pelt, it circled around once, then vectored in on the three figures standing together on the beach.

T.K.'s Digivice was instantly in his hand. "Patamon!"

"I'm ready!"

_"Wait."_

All three froze at the deep, resonant voice.

"I am not here to harm you," the large white Digimon said, landing a short distance away from them and gazing at them with sharp, eagle-like eyes. "In fact, it is my desire to aid you."

"Oh yeah?" Gatomon growled. "And how do we know we can trust you?"

The creature folded its wings in tightly, a nervous habit perhaps, and bowed its head slightly.

"There is nothing that I can say that will make you trust me…but I am not asking for your trust. Indeed, I neither deserve nor desire it, and freely I admit that your safety cannot be ensured if you trust me."

"So what _do_ you want?" the catlike Digimon hissed.

"As I said before, I wish to help you."

"And how do you propose to do that?" T.K. asked carefully, speaking at last.

The white Digimon was silent for a long moment, and when it spoke again its voice contained a great deal more gentleness. "So…_you_ are the one she called for."

T.K. felt a jolt run though him. "Kari." His clear blue eyes searched the winged Digimon's deep golden ones. "You know about Kari."

The proud eagle's head dipped in affirmation.

"Is she alright? Where is she? Can you take me to her?"

"She was hale when I saw her last, though that will not be the case if we delay too long…"

"Where is she?" T.K. demanded again, and the white Digimon hesitated for a moment.

"She is with _him_ now," he said at last in a low voice, dropping his gaze. He looked up meaningfully, as if to say, _"You_ know who I mean."

The blonde boy took a deep, shuddering breath. "Take me to her."

It was not a request.

The white Digimon chuckled slightly and stretched its great feathered wings. "That, child, was my intention all along."

* * *

A quarter of an hour later, they were whisking over the flat black face of the Dark Ocean. T.K. and Gatomon, seated on Pegasusmon's broad back, followed after the white Digimon, who had told them his name was Hippogriffonmon. They had been flying for a good length of time now, and at considerable speed; T.K. shivered and clutched at the collar of his vest, wondering just how much farther it was to wherever they were going. 

"How much farther is it?" he shouted over at Hippogriffonmon after another five minutes or so had passed.

"Not much. There—" it pointed with one clawed forefoot "—that mountain there. That is our destination."

"I thought you said Kari was with the _Undersea_ Master—that doesn't look like it's 'undersea' to me!"

"She _is_ in the Underwater City--far beneath these dark waters. _However,"_ he cut off a question from T.K. and an angry accusation from Gatomon, "there is a way to reach that city through a secret tunnel deep inside that mountain."

"If it's a secret, then how does he know about it?" Pegasusmon said in a low voice.

"If it leads straight to the city, won't this passage be pretty heavily guarded?" T.K. asked as they circled around the craggy mountain's perimeter.

"It would be," Hippogriffonmon agreed, coming to a landing on a narrow rocky shelf that the other three hadn't even noticed was there, "but the Dark Master believes the tunnel to be blocked off, and completely unusable."

"Where exactly does it lead to?"

"A plaza in the verycenter of the city. There is a large, loose stone plate there that will lift easily, and then you will be in."

T.K. slid off Pegasusmon's back, grunting a bit from the stiffness his legs had accumulated from the cold and lack of motion. "Thanks," he said with a bow to the white Digimon, then stepped quickly towards the gaping hole in the almost equally black rock. "Come on, guys," he said, not pausing to wait for their response.

"You don't have to tell me twice," Gatomon said, following close after.

"Right behind you!" Pegasusmon said, plunging into the darkness as well.

Hippogriffonmon hesitated for a moment, then doubled over as if in pain, a strange, gargling noise coming from his throat.

After a moment he straightened up once more, and followed after them as if nothing had happened…

…But something had.

For his eyes were now glowing a bright, vicious red.


	15. Chapter the Fifteenth

_A/N: Anyone still reading? Sorry it's taken so long!_

* * *

With a gasp, Kari jerked her hand back from the dark fountain's sluggish water. Her knees felt weak, and she sank to the ground, that dark voice still pounding inside her head. Closing her eyes tightly, she clutched at her temples, willing the voice out of her mind. After a long while, its echoes faded away, and Kari slowly opened her eyes.

_What…what _was_ that? I felt like it was trying to get _inside_ me somehow! How…how could it…?_ Panic rose within her, making it hard to breathe, but she forced herself to remain calm. Besides, her legs still felt so weak, she would have been surprised if she could stand…

_"Welcome, Child of Light."_

Though still sitting on the ground, Kari spun about at these words, pressing her back hard against the frigid stone of the black fountain.

It was a small, shadowy figure that had spoken--a Divermon, it looked to be--and yet it was ganglier and more strange-looking than usual.

She didn't get to look at it long, however, for with a snarling laugh, it lunged forward at her.

More out of reflex than anything, the hand holding her Digivice snapped up and out towards the creature; there was a blinding _flash_ of pink light, and the murky figure was sent sprawling. Kari seemed to draw strength from the brief flare, however, and rose strongly to her feet, facing her opponent squarely.

It lunged again, again she brought up her Digivice, and again the creature was repelled by a burst of pink light.

It tried again, and again, and twice more, then it paused.

"Had enough already?" Kari called, lowering her Digivice slightly.

It started as a mere chuckle, then became a quiet laugh; Kari drew a sharp breath, then stiffened and clutched her Digivice more tightly, holding it more firmly in front of her as the dark creature before her threw its head back and roared with wild, crazed howls of laughter.

* * *

Even inside the tunnel, there was no noise except that which they made themselves—the scuff of hoof and shoe on stone (cat paws are silent, after all), the muted reverberation of their voices bouncing back to them from the rough rocky walls, and the hoarse, echoing whisper of their breath; the lack of any other sound--no dripping water, no rustle of wind--was eerie enough to make the hair on the back of T.K.'s neck rise. 

He paused suddenly.

…Or…was it perhaps…something else? Come to think of it, he couldn't hear—

"_GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"_

With a roar that shook dust and small stones loose from the walls around them, Hippogriffonmon suddenly burst into view from around a corner behind them and rushed at them, though his size and the narrowness of the tunnel slowed his charge somewhat.

It did not, however, slow the progression of his attacks.

"_Heat Wave!" _

"Get _down!"_ T.K. snatched Gatomon out of the way and ducked behind a sheltering outcropping as the sweltering pulse of air rushed by. "Pegasusmon!" he shouted, looking around wildly.

"I'm fine, T.K.," the winged Digimon said from a similar outcropping overhead. "But why is he attacking us?"

"I don't know," the human boy risked a glance around the edge of his stone shield to locate their unexpected enemy.

"_Heat Wave!"_ Hippogriffonmon snarled again, his eyes flashing a murderous red, the same color as—

—The same color as the symbols on the spiral wrapped around his arm—

"Pegasusmon, on his arm! He's got a Dark Spiral!"

"But I thought we destroyed all those!" Gatomon gasped.

"I thought so too, but apparently—"

The hot blast of air rushing by cut off the rest of his statement, and he gritted his teeth; even though the rock had absorbed most of it, it had still hurt a bit this time.

"Pegasusmon! Aim for that Spiral! And hurry!"

"Right! _Equus Beam!"_ he shouted, dodging out from his hiding place just long enough to send the attack lancing into Hippogriffonmon's upper arm before flitting back to safety.

With a howl that shook the very walls of the tunnel, Hippogriffonmon thrashed in pain, and then: _"SONIC VOICE!"_

A deep, ominous rumble started somewhere in the stones beneath T.K.'s feet.

"RUN!" he shouted, following after Gatomon who was already dashing deeper down into the tunnel.

"T.K., get on!" Pegasusmon swooped low, and T.K., still running full tilt, managed to throw himself across his Digimon's back; Gatomon's striped tail suddenly flicked up into his line of sight, and impulsively T.K. grabbed it, jerking her up onto Pegasusmon's back as well.

Then all was a chaos of shattering, falling rock and spinning, dizzying blackness. At last, unable to bear any more, T.K. closed his eyes tightly; it was only afterwards, when he noticed how raw his throat was, that he realized he'd been screaming—the sound had been lost in the thunder of cracking, sliding stone.

He didn't know how long that nightmare went on, but after what seemed a lot like forever, he suddenly felt himself lying on his stomach on a cool stone floor that--miracle of miracles--was not moving.

With a moan, he pushed himself up into a sitting position, rubbing his head and looking dazedly around for the Digimon. They were both sprawled on the floor a short distance away, and both looked unharmed, though Pegasusmon had de-Digivolved back into Patamon, who was snoring very loudly for a creature of his size.

T.K. chuckled. _He must've collapsed, poor little guy. Well, he deserves the rest—that was some pretty fancy flying!_ Scooping the sleeping Digimon up in his arms, he forced himself to his feet, and though he ached a bit, he was otherwise unharmed.

Gatomon let out a little mewling moan of her own, and pushed herself up from the cold stone as well, though she stood a bit more gingerly than the human boy. "T.K.," she groaned, rubbing her rump with a paw, "I know I should thank you for saving my life, but that _hurt._ Next time try to grab something _besides_ my tail."

"Right, sorry." He looked around at their surroundings, then started off the way they'd been going before Hippogriffonmon had attacked them. They had little choice in the matter--the way back to the entrance was blocked with rubble from the cave-in. "Come on, we have to find Kari." Still holding Patamon in his arms, T.K. stepped carefully out into the new tunnel, Gatomon at his heels. "You just rest, buddy," the blonde boy said quietly to his apparently unconscious partner. "You need to save your strength—something tells me we're gonna need it."

"What do you think happened to Hippogriffonmon?" Gatomon asked after a long stretch of silence.

"I dunno. He's probably okay, though."

"I was afraid of that," she muttered.

"Well, I guess we know now why he warned us not to trust him," T.K said with a crooked smile.

"_Personally,_ I don't that that was enough of a warning," Gatomon grumbled.

"Do you think I got it? The Dark Spiral, I mean," Patamon mumbled blearily from where he was nestled in T.K.'s arms.

"From the way he reacted, I'd say so, but we can't be sure. The whole place came down around our ears before I could get a good look."

"Yeah…" Patamon subsided into silence in T.K.'s arms and was soon fast asleep once more.

After walking for a good two hours, they all decided that they were too tired to go on without at least a short rest, and a quick meal also. He'd just finished off the last of his sandwich and was washing it down with some water from his water bottle when T.K. heard it again. With a gasp he dropped the bottle, splashing water down one leg of his pants and nearly soaking Patamon, and clutched at his head for a moment before leaping to his feet.

"It's Kari!" he said urgently. "I hear her! She's calling for me—for us!" Snatching up his backpack, he sprinted down the tunnel. "She needs us there right now—c'mon guys, hurry! She needs—"

_"Oof!"_

_"Ow!"_

Gatomon covered her nose with a paw and squinted up at the tall blonde. "T.K., _warn_ us next time before you stop like that!"

"…T.K.?" Patamon and Gatomon exchanged quick, worried glances. "T.K., what's wrong?"

"What happened?" Gatomon demanded, planting herself squarely in front of the motionless human boy. _"What happened?"_

"…It stopped."

"W—what?" Fear filled that simple word.

"It stopped," T.K. said again, looking dazedly down at the Digimon. "I…I can't hear her anymore. Her voice…is..._gone."

* * *

_

Kari shivered as the Digimon continued to laugh; it was such a cold, heartless noise…

"Truly you do not know who you are dealing with, child, if you think that a few little flashes of light are going to stop _me."_ Again it chuckled, a low rasping sound that made Kari's skin crawl.

"What do you want with me? Why did you bring me here?" she demanded, clutching her Digivice to her chest.

The creature's quiet laughter subsided. "Your power, of course…yes, your special abilities will be _quite_ useful. Though I doubt even _you_ know just how strong you are…do you even know _how_ to use your power?"

"What does it matter? I won't use it to help you enslave more Digimon!"

"Child, you fail to comprehend just what I plan to do with your power. No…it is your own world that you should fear for."

"My own—?"

"All I need is your power, and then everything will be in place…" The dark creature suddenly paused, then took a step toward her, then another; the knuckles of the hand that clutched her Digivice slowly turned white, but she stood her ground as the murky thing approached and then knelt before her. "I would be honored," it said, holding a shadowy hand out to her, "and indeed we all would be, if you would accept your rightful place as our Queen."

"And help you destroy my world?" Kari whispered, horrified. "And all the others, too?" Anger suddenly flared up in her, and she straightened her shoulders. "No! I won't help you."

"Do not trifle with me, child," the dark thing kneeling before her hissed impatiently. "You _will_ do as I wish—whether or not you desire to do so."

A bright pink flash from her Digivice suddenly sent the gangly Digimon sprawling, knocking it back several feet.

"My power is Light," Kari stated without a hint of fear in her voice, "and those who are belong to the Darkness will never be permitted to use it."

A snarl came from the black figure before her: "Very well, Child of Light. If this is the way it must be…"

Kari readied herself, thinking that the dark thing would hurl itself forward at her once again; she was surprised when instead it pulled back, growling all the while. Her eyes suddenly flew wide as she heard a sudden _thump-**thump**_ noise, followed by a staggering wave of visible darkness, moving to circle around the shadowy Divermon like the ripples in a lake going in reverse.

_Thump-**thump.**_

Another wave of darkness brushed by.

_Thump-**thump.** Thump-**thump.**_

It was hard to breathe, hard to keep the dark ripples away from her. Every wave made her gasp, every beat caused a sharp pain to lance through her head. Closing her eyes tightly, she focused on her Digivice, and soon a glowing pink bubble enveloped her; the darkness broke and slithered around it like breakers against sea-cliffs, and for the moment, at least, she was safe.

_Thump-**thump.** Thump-**thump.** Thump-**thump.**_

The pulse was steady now, throbbing and insistent, and it was rising; the Divermon was wreathed in the gathered murk. And as Kari watched in horror, it slowly began to _grow,_ stretching and twisting, the shifting, smoky rings circling it seeming to melt into its body even as more and more kept coming. Before long it had doubled its original size, and it quickly tripled that; moments later, it had grown to a colossal extent. Kari could only stare and gape in horror as it grew until she came (just barely) to the middle of its shin.

_T.K.! T.K., Gatomon, _TAI,_ I need you! I was a fool to think I could do this on my own!_ She swallowed hard, then clenched her fists in determination. _But I have to try…I have to!_

_THUMP-**THUMP.** THUMP-**THUMP.** THUMP-**THUMP.**_

The pulse was a thunder now, and Kari knew that the time had come: she had to attack now, before the monstrous thing before her grew any larger.

Her brown eyes narrowed in determination, she thrust her Digivice forward at the giant Digimon; a large section of the pink bubble still surrounding her swirled, then shot outward like a spear, breaking free of the shimmering globe and lancing upwards and striking the huge creature squarely in the chest. The energy beam broke and shattered against the creature's chest, and it gave a strangled, gargling growl as it took two steps backwards to steady itself; obviously her attack had had some sort of effect, however slight, so she focused once more—

Just as she was about to release a second bolt of energy, the beast before her spoke, its voice deep and resonant enough to shake the very ground she stood on:

**_"Brave and foolish child, you would do well to learn your place…for against the might of the Sinful Priest of the Ocean Floor, there is no possibility whatsoever of you achieving victory..."_**

Kari forced herself to stop shaking, somehow finding her voice amid her fear and shouting back defiantly, "If that's true, and you're so powerful, then why do you need me?"

The Digimon did not reply in words; instead, it hurled a huge three-pronged halberd that had somehow seemingly appeared from nowhere, directly at her—**_"Forbidden Trident!"_**

If one thing could be said for Kari's rather doubtful combat skills, it would be that she had excellent reflexes; that came from years of playing soccer with Tai. Thus, almost before she knew it, she found that she had thrown herself sideways, rolling across her shoulders and upper back into an alert crouch, which quickly shifted into a lunging sprint. The halberd crashed into the dull grey cobblestones where she had been standing just moments before, sending up a sizeable cloud of dust and flinging chunks of rubble through the air—a miss, but just barely. Kari kept moving, dodging and weaving, though her enemy had not even bothered to pull its weapon free of the ground.

**_"Why are you running? Why even bother to fight when you know that you cannot win?"_** The girl nearly stumbled and nearly fell to her knees as the colossal creature took a step forwards, towards her, slowly drawing the trident free as it came at her; the very earth trembled with its every stride, making it difficult for Kari to keep her feet under her, thus making it even more difficult to dodge the Digimon's attacks, which at this point were merely half-clumsy swipes at her with its various tentacle-like limbs.

If it had wanted her dead, the fight would have been over in a matter of minutes. It was so enormous now that it could have simply stepped on her and smashed her flat; but it wanted her alive, so that complicated things…and gave her something that was at least faintly resembled a chance.

Not much of one, however.

She had dodged around the fountain at the center of the square, trying to put it between the enormous Digimon and herself--a desparate bid for some sort of cover; however, with just a few short (for a creature of that size in any case) strides, she found herself pinned between the fountain and her opponent once again.

Not liking the feeling of being trapped in such a manner, Kari darted away from the fountain, successfully dodged the trident and two swipes from the huge thing's tentacles, and set herself firmly to make another attempt at shooting another beam of pink light at the monstrosity before her. Within seconds the pink bubble surrounded her once again, and after a few more seconds, she'd sent two bolts of energy at the gigantic beast, which roared in something that sounded suspiciously like pain as the bolts lanced through its shoulder and midriff respectively. She wanted to keep up her attack, but it seemed that it took a while for the energy bubble to refocus itself…

_**"That was a mistake, Child of Light…you leave me with no choice!"**_

Kari caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye; she turned her head towards it just in time to see a blue-grey tentacle a heartbeat away from slapping her halfway across the plaza—not nearly enough time to dodge.

Not that she didn't still attempt to evade it, however.

The attempt was simply unsuccessful..._very _unsuccessful.

The next instant, stars exploded before her eyes, and she was snapped away like a helpless leaf caught up in a tornado, sailing backwards through the air, destined, she thought, for a very hard landing. She grasped vainly at the air around her, desperately searching for something to cling to, her mouth opening in a silent cry—

And then she landed flat on her back in the center of the fountain's dark water.

She'd hit the surface with such force, the air had been knocked from her lungs; she drew a ragged gasping breath—then gagged and tried to scream—oh, but she couldn't, the stuff was in her mouth, was _everywhere_—

_T.K.!_ Her mind was screaming, _T.K., HELP ME!_

She tried fight, tried to turn over and swim for the side, but she was held in place by some strange force, and it was gradually pulling her deeper into the torpid, oily liquid—

Then her eyes went wide as something cold and clammy wrapped itself around her ankles and jerked her down.


End file.
